Apparatus and method for selecting cell in wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to a pre-5 th -Generation (5G) or 5G communication system to be provided for supporting higher data rates Beyond 4 th -Generation (4G) communication system such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). An apparatus of a terminal in a wireless communication system is provided. The apparatus includes at least one transceiver and at least one processor operatively coupled to the at least one transceiver. The at least one processor is configured to control the transceiver to communicate through a cell determined based on information regarding a strength of a received signal for a first cell and a path diversity (PD) for the first cell. The PD comprises information regarding paths associated with the first cell.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of a U.S.Provisional application filed on Sep. 6, 2016 in the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office and assigned Ser. No. 62/383,784, and 35 U.S.C. §119(a)of a Korean patent application filed on Nov. 18, 2016 in the KoreanIntellectual Property Office and assigned Serial number 10-2016-0154471,the entire disclosure of each of which is hereby incorporated byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication system. Moreparticularly, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus and amethod for selecting a cell in a wireless communication system.

BACKGROUND

To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased sincedeployment of 4^(th) generation (4G) communication systems, efforts havebeen made to develop an improved 5^(th) generation (5G) or pre-5Gcommunication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication systemis also called a ‘Beyond 4G Network’ or a ‘Post LTE System’.

The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higherfrequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higherdata rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increasethe transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna,an analog beam forming, large scale antenna techniques are discussed in5G communication systems.

In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system networkimprovement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud RadioAccess Networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D)communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperativecommunication, Coordinated Multi-Points (CoMP), reception-endinterference cancellation and the like.

In the 5G system, Hybrid FSK and QAM Modulation (FQAM) and slidingwindow superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation(ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multipleaccess (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advancedaccess technology have been developed.

In a mobile communication system, supporting the mobility of a terminalis essential. A 5th-generation (5G) system also supports the mobility ofa terminal. To this end, the terminal may continuously measure thequality of a serving cell that currently provides service and thequality of neighboring cells and report the same to a network. In orderto determine the quality of cells, it is required to consider thestrengths of signals received from the corresponding cells. However, ina beamforming-based wireless communication system, when a cell isselected based only on the strength of a received signal, the cell thatis able to serve its purpose may not be actually selected. Accordingly,a reference for selecting a cell through a new method is required.

The above information is presented as background information only toassist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determinationhas been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the abovemight be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

SUMMARY

Aspects of the present disclosure are to address at least theabove-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at leastthe advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the presentdisclosure is to provide an apparatus and a method for effectivelyselecting a cell in a wireless communication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for defining a cell in a wireless communication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for determining the optimal received signal strength of a cell ina wireless communication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for determining path diversity (PD) of a cell in a wirelesscommunication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for discovering an optimal cell in a wireless communicationsystem.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for determining an operation mode of a terminal for determiningan optimal cell in a wireless communication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for reporting on measurement through beamforming in a wirelesscommunication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for selecting a primary cell or a secondary cell in a wirelesscommunication system.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and amethod for selecting a master cell group (MCG) or a secondary cell group(SCG) in a wireless communication system.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus ofa terminal in a wireless communication system is provided. The apparatusincludes at least one transceiver and at least one processor operativelycoupled to the at least one transceiver. The at least one processor isconfigured to control the at least one transceiver to communicatethrough a cell determined based on information regarding a strength of areceived signal for a first cell and a PD for the first cell. The PDcomprises information regarding paths associated with the first cell.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, anapparatus of a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system isprovided. The apparatus includes at least one transceiver and at leastone processor operatively coupled to the at least one transceiver. Theat least one processor is configured to receive a measurement result fora first cell from a terminal and identify a cell to performcommunication with the terminal. The measurement result comprisesinformation regarding a strength of a received signal for the first celland a PD for the first cell. The PD comprises information regardingpaths associated with the first cell.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a method ofoperating a terminal in a wireless communication system is provided. Themethod includes communicating through a cell determined based oninformation regarding a strength of a received signal for a first celland a PD for the first cell. The PD comprises information regardingpaths associated with the first cell.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a method ofoperating a BS in a wireless communication system is provided. Themethod includes receiving a measurement result for a first cell from aterminal and identifying a cell to perform communication with theterminal. The measurement result comprises information regarding astrength of a received signal for the first cell and a PD for the firstcell. The PD comprises information regarding paths associated with thefirst cell.

An apparatus and a method according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure can select a cell that serves an intended purpose bydefining the cell in consideration of beams.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings,discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certainembodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication system according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a BS in the wirelesscommunication system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates the configuration of a terminal in the wirelesscommunication system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate the configuration of a communicationunit in the wireless communication system according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5A illustrates the concept for a cell according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 5B illustrates an example of wireless communication environmentsaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5C illustrates another example of wireless communicationenvironments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a wireless communication environmentfor determining an optimal received signal value according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7A illustrates an example of determining an optimal received signalvalue according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7B illustrates another example of determining an optimal receivedsignal value according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a wireless communication environmentfor determining a path diversity (PD) value according to an embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of determining PD according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of comparison of PD values according toan embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11A is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal fordetermining a cell representative value (CRV) according to an embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 11B is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal forcell selection according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12A illustrates an example of a measurement report according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12B illustrates an example of an access procedure according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of cell selection for a terminal thatsupports carrier aggregation (CA) according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of cell selection by aterminal supporting CA according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a cell group and cell selection for aterminal supporting dual connectivity (DC) according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the operation for selecting a cellgroup and a cell of a terminal that supports DC according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of selecting a radio access technology(RAT) that supports a master cell group (MCG) according to an embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the terminal forselecting an RAT supporting a MCG according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of cell selection based on an applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the terminal forcell selection based on an application according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 21 illustrates an example of cell selection based on movement ofthe terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the terminal forcell selection based on movement of the terminal according to anembodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 23 illustrates an example of the operation of an unmanned aerialvehicle (UAV) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, like reference numerals will be understood torefer to like parts, components, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings isprovided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of variousembodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and theirequivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in thatunderstanding, but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatvarious changes and modifications of the various embodiments describedherein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of thepresent disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functionsand constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are notlimited to the bibliographical meanings, but are merely used by theinventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in theart that the following description of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure is provided for illustration purposes only and not for thepurpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appendedclaims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes referenceto one or more of such surfaces.

The terms used in the present disclosure are only used to describespecific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the presentdisclosure. Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, includingtechnical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as those commonlyunderstood by a person skilled in the art to which the presentdisclosure pertains. Such terms as those defined in a generally useddictionary may be interpreted to have the meanings equal to thecontextual meanings in the relevant field of art, and are not to beinterpreted to have ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearlydefined in the present disclosure. In some cases, even the term definedin the present disclosure should not be interpreted to excludeembodiments of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed based on an approach of hardware. However, various embodimentsof the present disclosure include a technology that uses both hardwareand software and thus, the various embodiments of the present disclosuremay not exclude the perspective of software.

The expression “a first”, “a second”, “the first”, or “the second” usedin various embodiments of the present disclosure may modify variouscomponents regardless of the order and/or the importance but does notlimit the corresponding components. When an element (e.g., firstelement) is referred to as being “(functionally or communicatively)connected,” or “directly coupled” to another element (second element),the element may be connected directly to another element or connected toanother element through yet another element (e.g., third element).

The expression “configured to” as used in various embodiments of thepresent disclosure may be interchangeably used with, for example,“suitable for”, “having the capacity to”, “designed to”, “adapted to”,“made to”, or “capable of” in terms of hardware or software, accordingto circumstances. Alternatively, in some situations, the expression“device configured to” may mean that the device, together with otherdevices or components, “is able to”. For example, the phrase “processoradapted (or configured) to perform A, B, and C” may mean a dedicatedprocessor (e.g., embedded processor) only for performing thecorresponding operations or a generic-purpose processor (e.g., centralprocessing unit (CPU) or application processor (AP)) that can performthe corresponding operations by executing one or more software programsstored in a memory device.

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method forselecting a cell in a wireless communication system. More specifically,the present disclosure describes technology for selecting a cell througha procedure of determining path diversity (PD) in a wirelesscommunication system.

The terms referring to a signal, the terms referring to a channel, theterms referring to a measurement value, the terms referring to controlinformation, the terms referring to network entities, and the termsreferring to elements of a device are used only for convenience ofdescription. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited by theterms described below, and other terms having equivalent technicalmeanings may be used.

The terms referring to control information used in the followingdescription, the terms for calculation states (e.g., a mode and anoperation), the terms referring to data (e.g., information or a value),the terms referring to network entities (e.g., a cell or a 5GNB), theterms referring to messages (e.g., reporting or a signal), and the termsreferring to elements of the device are employed for convenience ofdescription. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited by theterms described below, and other terms having equivalent technicalmeanings may be used.

Although the present disclosure describes various embodiments based onthe terms used in some communication standards (e.g., long-termevolution (LTE) and LTE-advanced (LTE-A) systems), they are onlyexamples for the description. Various embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be easily modified and applied to other communicationsystems.

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication system according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1, a base station (BS) 110, a terminal 120, and aterminal 130 are illustrated as some of the nodes using a wirelesschannel in a wireless communication system. FIG. 1 illustrates only oneBS, but another BS, which is the same as or similar to the BS 110, maybe further included.

The BS 110 is network infrastructure element that provides wirelessaccess to the terminals 120 and 130. The BS 110 has coverage defined fora predetermined geographical region based on the distance at which asignal can be transmitted. The BS 110 may be referred to as an “accesspoint (AP)”, an “eNodeB (eNB)”, a “5^(th)-generation (5G) node”, a “5GNodeB (NB)”, a “wireless point”, a “transmission/reception point (TRP)”,or other terms having equivalent technical meaning, as well as a “BS”.

Each of the terminals 120 and 130 is a device used by a user, andperforms communication with the BS 110 through a wireless channel.Depending on the case, at least one of the terminals 120 and 130 mayoperate without user involvement. At least one of the terminals 120 and130 may be a device that performs machine-type communication (MTC), andmay not be carried by the user. Each of the terminals 120 and 130 may bereferred to as “user equipment (UE)”, a “mobile station”, a “subscriberstation”, a “remote terminal”, a “wireless terminal”, a “user device”,or other terms having the equivalent technical meaning, as well as“terminal”.

The BS 110, the terminal 120, and the terminal 130 may transmit andreceive wireless signals in millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands (e.g., 28GHz, 30 GHz, 38 GHz, and 60 GHz). In order to increase a channel gain,the BS 110, the terminal 120, and the terminal 130 may performbeamforming. The beamforming may include transmission beamforming andreception beamforming. That is, the BS 110, the terminal 120, and theterminal 130 may assign directivity to a transmission signal and areception signal. To this end, the BS 110 and the terminals 120 and 130may select serving beams 112, 113, 121, and 131 through a beam searchprocedure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration of a BS in the wireless communicationsystem according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Theconfiguration illustrated in FIG. 2 may be understood as theconfiguration of the BS 110. The term “unit” or used hereinafter mayrefer to the unit for processing at least one function or operation, andmay be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardwareand software. The various units may be implemented as at least oneprocessor programmed or configured to carry out the describedoperations.

Referring to FIG. 2, the BS 110 may include a wireless communicationunit 210, a backhaul communication unit 220, a storage unit 230, and acontroller 240.

The wireless communication unit 210 performs functions for transmittingand receiving signals through a wireless channel. For example, thewireless communication unit 210 may perform a function of conversionbetween a baseband signal and bitstreams according to a physical layerstandard of the system. In data transmission, the wireless communicationunit 210 generates complex symbols by encoding and modulatingtransmission bitstreams. In data reception, the wireless communicationunit 210 reconstructs reception bitstreams by demodulating and decodingthe baseband signal. The wireless communication unit 210 up-converts thebaseband signal into a radio-frequency (RF) band signal, transmits theconverted signal through an antenna, and then down-converts the RF bandsignal received through the antenna into the baseband signal.

To this end, the wireless communication unit 210 may include atransmission filter, a reception filter, an amplifier, a mixer, anoscillator, a digital-to-analog convertor (DAC), an analog-to-digitalconvertor (ADC), and the like. The wireless communication unit 210 mayinclude a plurality of transmission/reception paths. The wirelesscommunication unit 210 may include at least one antenna array consistingof a plurality of antenna elements. On the hardware side, the wirelesscommunication unit 210 may include a digital unit and an analog unit,and the analog unit may include a plurality of sub-units according tooperation power, operation frequency, and the like.

The wireless communication unit 210 transmits and receives the signal asdescribed above. Accordingly, the wireless communication unit 210 may bereferred to as a “transmitter”, a “receiver”, or a “transceiver”.Further, in the following description, transmission and receptionperformed through the wireless channel may be used to have a meaningincluding the processing performed by the wireless communication unit210 as described above.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the wirelesscommunication unit 210 may transmit reference signals. The referencesignals may be signals for determining an optimal received signal valuefor each of at least one cell of the BS 110. The wireless communicationunit 210 may receive measurement results corresponding to the referencesignals. The measurement results may include measurement results forcells of the BS 110. The measurement results may include cellrepresentative values (CRVs) of the BS 110.

The backhaul communication unit 220 provides an interface for performingcommunication with other nodes within the network. The backhaulcommunication unit 220 converts bitstreams transmitted to another node(e.g., another access node, another BS, a higher node, or a corenetwork), from the BS 110 into a physical signal and converts thephysical signal received from the other node into the bitstreams.

The storage unit 230 stores a basic program, an application, and datasuch as setting information for the operation of the BS 110. The storageunit 230 may include volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or acombination of volatile memory and non-volatile memory. The storage unit230 provides stored data in response to a request from the controller240.

The controller 240 controls the general operation of the BS 110. Forexample, the controller 240 transmits and receives a signal through thewireless communication unit 210 or the backhaul communication unit 220.Further, the controller 240 records data in the storage unit 230 andreads the recorded data. To this end, the controller 240 may include atleast one processor.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, thecontroller 240 may include a calculation unit for performing acalculation operation on each of the CRVs of a plurality of cells. Thecalculation unit may correspond to an instruction set or code stored inthe storage unit 230, and may be instructions/code that reside at leasttemporarily in the controller 240, a storage space that stores theinstructions/code, or part of the circuitry included in the controller240. The calculation unit may perform an arithmetic operation forcalculating a maximum value, an arithmetic operation for calculating anaverage value, or an arithmetic operation for calculating a total sumbased on settings. The controller 240 may control the BS 110 to performoperations according to various embodiments of the present disclosuredescribed below.

FIG. 3 illustrates a configuration of a terminal in a wirelesscommunication system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The configuration illustrated in FIG. 3 may be understood asthe configuration of the terminal 120. The term “unit” used hereinaftermay refer to the unit for processing at least one function or operationand may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination ofhardware and software.

Referring to FIG. 3, the terminal 120 includes a communication unit 310,a storage unit 320, and a controller 330.

The communication unit 310 performs functions for transmitting/receivinga signal through a wireless channel. The communication unit 310 performsa function of conversion between a baseband signal and bitstreamsaccording to a physical layer standard of the system. When data istransmitted, the communication unit 310 generates complex symbols byencoding and modulating a transmission bitstream. When data is received,the communication unit 310 reconstructs a reception bitstream bydemodulating and decoding a baseband signal. The communication unit 310up-converts the baseband signal into an RF band signal, transmits theconverted signal through an antenna, and then down-converts the RF bandsignal received through the antenna into the baseband signal. Thecommunication unit 310 may include a transmission filter, a receptionfilter, an amplifier, a mixer, an oscillator, a DAC, and an ADC.

The communication unit 310 may include a plurality oftransmission/reception paths. In addition, the communication unit 310may include at least one antenna array consisting of a plurality ofantenna elements. On the hardware side, the wireless communication unit210 may include a digital circuit and an analog circuit (e.g., a RFintegrated circuit (RFIC)). The digital circuit and the analog circuitmay be implemented as one package. The communication unit 310 mayinclude a plurality of RF chains. The communication unit 310 may performbeamforming.

The communication unit 310 may include different communication modulesto process signals in different frequency bands. The communication unit310 may include a plurality of communication modules to support aplurality of different radio access technologies. The different radioaccess technologies may include bluetooth low energy (BLE), Wi-Fi, Wi-FiGigabyte, and cellular network (e.g., LTE). The different frequencybands may include a super-high frequency (SHF) (e.g., 2.5 GHz or 5 GHz)band and a millimeter (mm) wave (e.g., 60 GHz) band.

The communication unit 310 transmits and receives the signal asdescribed above. Accordingly, the communication unit 310 may be referredto as a “transmitter”, a “receiver”, or a “transceiver”. In thefollowing description, transmission and reception performed through thewireless channel is used to have a meaning including the processingperformed by the communication unit 310 as described above.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communicationunit 310 may receive reference signals. The reference signals may bereference signals received through different pairs of beams or differentpaths. The communication unit 310 may determine an optimal receivedsignal value for each of at least one cell. The communication unit 310may transmit measurement results corresponding to the reference signals.The measurement results may include a measurement result for aparticular cell. The measurement results may include a CRV for theparticular cell.

The storage unit 320 stores a basic program, an application, and datasuch as setting information for the operation of the terminal 120. Thestorage unit 320 may include a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory,or a combination of volatile memory and non-volatile memory. The storageunit 320 provides stored data in response to a request from thecontroller 330.

The controller 330 controls the general operation of the terminal 120.For example, the controller 330 transmits and receives a signal throughthe communication unit 310. The controller 330 records data in thestorage unit 320 and reads the recorded data. To this end, thecontroller 330 may include at least one processor or microprocessor, ormay play the part of the processor. The relevant portion of thecommunication unit 310 or the controller 330 may be referred to as acommunication processor (CP). The controller 330 may include ameasurement calculation unit for calculating a CRV by the terminal 120.The measurement calculation unit may perform an arithmetic operation fordetermining one reference signal received power (RSRP) value thatrepresents a plurality of RSRP values. The measurement calculation unitmay perform an arithmetic operation for calculating a maximum value, anarithmetic operation for calculating an average value, or an arithmeticoperation for calculating a total sum. The measurement calculation unitmay calculate a CRV that represents a particular cell by applying apreset weighted value to each of the determined RSRP value and PD value.The controller 330 may control the terminal 120 to perform operationsaccording to various embodiments described below.

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate a configuration of a communication unitin a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate examples of thedetailed configuration of the communication unit 210 of FIG. 2 or thecommunication unit 310 of FIG. 3. More specifically, FIGS. 4A, 4B, and4C illustrate elements for performing beamforming as the part of thecommunication unit 210 of FIG. 2 or the communication unit 310 of FIG.3.

Referring to FIG. 4A, the communication unit 210 or 310 includes anencoding and modulation unit 402, a digital beamforming unit 404, aplurality of transmission paths 406-1 to 406-N, and an analogbeamforming unit 408.

The encoding and modulation unit 402 performs channel encoding. For thechannel encoding, at least one of a low-density parity check (LDPC)code, a convolution code, and a polar code may be used. The encoding andmodulation unit 402 generates modulation symbols by performingconstellation mapping.

The digital beamforming unit 404 performs beamforming for a digitalsignal (e.g., modulation symbols). To this end, the digital beamformingunit 404 multiplies the modulation symbols by beamforming weightedvalues. The beamforming weighted values may be used for changing thesize and phase of the signal, and may be referred to as a “precodingmatrix” or a “precoder”. The digital beamforming unit 404 outputs thedigitally beamformed modulation symbols to the plurality of transmissionpaths 406-1 to 406-N. According to a multiple input multiple output(MIMO) transmission scheme, the modulation symbols may be multiplexed,or the same modulation symbols may be provided to the plurality oftransmission paths 406-1 to 406-N.

The plurality of transmission paths 406-1 to 406-N convert the digitallybeamformed digital signals into analog signals. To this end, each of theplurality of transmission paths 406-1 to 406-N may include an inversefast Fourier transform (IFFT) calculation unit, a cyclic prefix (CP)insertion unit, a DAC, and an up-conversion unit. The CP insertion unitis for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, andmay be omitted when another physical layer scheme (e.g., a filter bankmulti-carrier (FBMC)) is applied. The plurality of transmission paths406-1 to 406-N provide independent signal processing processes for aplurality of streams generated through the digital beamforming. However,depending on the implementation, some of the elements of the pluralityof transmission paths 406-1 to 406-N may be used in common.

The analog beamforming unit 408 performs beamforming on analog signals.To this end, the digital beamforming unit 404 multiplies the analogsignals by beamforming weighted values. The beamformed weighted valuesare used to change the size and phase of the signal. The analogbeamforming unit 408 may be configured as illustrated in FIG. 4B or 4Caccording to a connection structure between the plurality oftransmission paths 406-1 to 406-N and the antennas.

Referring to FIG. 4B, signals input into the analog beamforming unit 408may be transmitted through the antennas via phase/size conversion andamplification operation. At this time, the signals in respective pathsare transmitted through different antenna sets, that is, antenna arrays.In the processing of signals input through a first path, the signals areconverted into signal sequences having the same or different phase/sizeby phase/size conversion units 412-1-1 to 412-1-M, are amplified byamplifiers 414-1-1 to 414-1-M, and are transmitted through antennas.

Referring to FIG. 4C, the signals input into the analog beamforming unit408 are transmitted through the antennas via phase/size conversion andamplification operation. The signals in respective paths are transmittedthrough the same antenna set (i.e., the antenna array). In theprocessing of signals input through a first path, the signals areconverted into signal sequences having the same or different phase/sizeby the phase/size conversion units 412-1-1 to 412-1-M and are amplifiedby the amplifiers 414-1-1 to 414-1-M. In order to be transmitted throughone antenna array, the amplified signals are summed by summing units416-1-1 to 416-1-M and then transmitted through the antennas.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example in which an independent antenna array isused for each transmission path, and FIG. 4C illustrates an example inwhich transmission paths share one antenna array. However, according toanother embodiment of the present disclosure, some transmission pathsmay use independent antenna arrays and the remaining transmission pathsmay share one antenna array. According to another embodiment of thepresent disclosure, a structure that may adaptively vary depending onthe situation may be used by applying a switchable structure betweentransmission paths and antenna arrays.

A cell may refer to an area that one BS can cover. One BS may cover asingle cell or multiple cells. The multiple cells may be divided by afrequency supporting multiple cells or an area of a covered sector.Hereinafter, the term “BS” may be used as a term including a cell, orthe term “cell” may be used as a term referring to a BS.

A serving cell may correspond to a cell that provides higher-layersignaling (e.g., radio resource control (RRC) signaling) with theterminal, and may refer to a single cell or multiple cells. When theterminal is not configured to support carrier aggregation (CA) or dualconnectivity (DC), the serving cell may be a single cell including aprimary cell. When the terminal is configured to support CA or DC, theserving cell may be a set of one or more cells including both a primarycell and at least one second cell.

FIG. 5A illustrates an element for indicating a cell according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5A, the element may be a received signal 501 or PD502.

The received signal 501 may indicate information on a signal associatedwith the cell. The signal associated with the cell may refer to a signalreceived through the cell. The information on the signal may contain aparameter associated with the signal. For example, the parameterassociated with the signal may be an index indicating the strength ofthe signal or an index indicating the quality of the signal. Theparameter associated with the signal may be one selected from parametersof a plurality of signals including the signal. For example, theparameter associated with the signal may refer to the highest signalstrength value among signal strength values of the plurality of signals.

Hereinafter, an optimal received signal value may refer to the highestvalue among a plurality of received signal values. The plurality ofreceived signal values may refer to received signal values measured froma plurality of signals (e.g., reference signals) transmitted andreceived through all beam pairs that can be configured by BSs (or cells)and terminals. The optimal received signal value may refer to a maximumvalue among received signal values measured for all beam pairs betweenthe BS and the terminal. The received signal value may be expressed bythe signal strength, such as RSRP, reference signal received quality(RSRQ), and received signal strength indicator (RSSI). Alternatively,the received signal value may be expressed as signal quality, such as asignal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR), acarrier-to-interference-and-noise ratio (CINR), and a signal-to-noiseratio (SNR).

The PD 502 may be information on paths. The paths may be paths throughwhich signals can be transmitted. The paths may be paths associated withthe electronic device. The information on the paths associated with theelectronic device may contain information on the number of paths thatare supported by the electronic device. The paths may be pathsassociated with the cell. The information on the paths associated withthe cell may contain information on the number of paths. For example, acell having three paths is guaranteed PD somewhat better than a cellhaving one path. Each of the paths may be a path through which signalscan be transmitted through the cell. The paths may be paths included inchannels between the terminal and the BS.

Hereinafter, PD may be information on paths between the BS (or cell) andthe terminal. The PD may be evaluated based on paths that guarantee atleast a predetermined level of quality or at least a predetermined levelof reception strength. As the PD is guaranteed, the terminal maycommunicate with the BS through various channel environments. Meanwhile,the PD may include information on the degree of independence of thepaths. That is, the PD may indicate the degree of correlation (ornon-correlation) of the paths. The PD may be expressed by a value withina predetermined range. In this case, as the diversity value is higher,it may mean that the number of independent paths is larger. As thediversity value is lower, it may mean that the number of correlatedpaths is larger. As the diversity value is higher, it may mean that thedirections of two beam pairs are more different. As the diversity valueis lower, it may mean that the directions of two beam pairs are moresimilar.

Hereinafter, the path may refer to a channel for transmitting a wirelesssignal. The path may correspond to a pair of beams. The path maycorrespond to a pair of beams. In some cases, the path may be referredto as a “link”, “channel”, or another term having an equivalent meaning.

In the present disclosure, characteristics of the cell may be expressedin consideration of the received signal 501 and the PD 502. Thecharacteristics of the cell may include at least one of data throughputwhen the signal is transmitted/received through the cell, a securitylevel when communication is performed through the cell, a degree ofrobustness against noise or interference, an obstacle when communicationis performed through the cell, and a degree of influence from an elementsuch as a mobile object. The characteristics of the cell may includeinformation on how suitable the cell is for communication or how wellthe cell serves the purpose of the terminal (or user). According to thecharacteristics of each of a plurality of cells, at least one cell 503may be selected. The apparatus according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure may select a cell in consideration of paths (e.g.,the PD 502) as well as the received signal 501. The apparatus may be aterminal or a network entity beyond, a BS depending on a predeterminedprocedure.

Hereinafter, the present disclosure describes a method of, inconsideration of an optimal received signal value of a cell and PD ofthe cell, acquiring information indicating the characteristics of thecorresponding cell (e.g., information representing the cell) andembodiments therefor.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example of a wireless communication environmentaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5B, the wireless communication environment may be awireless communication environment 500 a or a wireless communicationenvironment 500 b.

Referring to FIG. 5B, the wireless communication environment 500 a andthe wireless communication environment 500 b may include a BS 510, a BS520, and a terminal 530. The BS 510 may provide a service to theterminal 530 located within a cell 511. The BS 520 may provide a serviceto the terminal 530 located within a cell 521. The cell 511 may providea path 555, a path 556, and a path 557 to the terminal 530 located at aposition 533. The cell 521 may provide a path 551 to the terminal 530located at the position 533.

The wireless communication environment 500 a may show the situation inwhich the terminal 530 moves to the position 533 from a position 531before an obstacle 560 enters. The position 533 may be included within aregion in which signals of the cell 511 and the cell 521 are allreceived by the terminal 530. After moving to the position 533, theterminal 530 may perform a measurement report on neighboring cells forhandover to a target cell from a serving cell or perform a cell searchand measurement for initial access or re-access. The terminal 530 maymeasure signals received from a plurality of cells (e.g., the cell 511and the cell 521) and determine received signal values. In FIG. 5B, itis assumed that received signal values increase in the order of thesignal received through the path 551, the signal received through thepath 556, the signal received through the path 557, and the signalreceived through the path 555. An obstacle 540 blocks the path 555. Theterminal 530 may determine that the received signal value of the cell521 that provides the path 551 is the greatest. Accordingly, theterminal 530 may determine that the cell 521 is most suitable forconfiguration of connection. The terminal 530 may be connected to thecell 521 through an access procedure (e.g., a random-access procedure oran RRC connection procedure).

The wireless communication environment 500 b represents the situation inwhich the terminal 530 moves to the position 533 from the position 531and then the obstacle 560 enters. As the obstacle 560 enters, the cell521 may not provide optimal communication service to the terminal 530through the path 551. For example, since the obstacle 560 enters, theterminal 530 may detect that the measured received signal value issmaller than a particular threshold value and determine that radio linkfailure (RLF) has occurred. The terminal 530 may attempt to recover aradio link after determining the occurrence of RLF. Due to theoccurrence of the RLF, the quality of service that the terminal 530receives may be deteriorated. Due to a delay time (about 1000 ms)attributable to the detection of the occurrence of the RLF and a delaytime (about 1000 ms) attributable to recovery of the RLF, the service tothe terminal 530 may be delayed.

When the radio link is not recovered, the terminal 530 may establish anew RRC connection. The terminal 530 may select the cell 511 thatprovides a link of the path 556. When the obstacle 560 escapes from thepath 551, the terminal 530 may determine that the received signal value,measured later through the path 551, is greater than received signalvalues from other paths. The terminal 530 may select the cell 521 thatprovides the link of the path 551 again. As the terminal 530 repeatedlychanges the cell selected according to movement of the obstacle 560, aping-pong phenomenon may occur.

In the wireless communication environment illustrated in FIG. 5B, whilethe cell 511 provides three paths, the cell 521 provides one path. Whenthe terminal 530 selects the cell 521 in consideration only of thereceived signal value, the above-described problems may occur in thecase in which the path 551 is blocked. However, when the terminal 530selects the cell 511 in consideration of the number of paths, eventhough the path 555, which is one of the three paths, is blocked by theobstacle 540, the other paths 556 and 557 are still available, so thatthe terminal 530 may not experience RLF or the ping-pong phenomenon.

As described above, the method of selecting a cell based only on theoptimal received signal value may be sensitive to movement of theobstacle. The method considering only the optimal received signal valuemay also change the states of paths even when the terminal moves, andmay thus cause deterioration of communication quality, a communicationdelay, or the ping-pong phenomenon. Accordingly, it is preferable toselect a cell in consideration of available paths between the BS (orcell) or the terminal as well as the received signal value. Theavailable paths may be paths that guarantee a predetermined quality orgreater, or a predetermined received signal strength value or higher.The available path may be referred to as a “usable path”, “effectivepath”, “active path”, or another term having the equivalent technicalmeaning. Through the consideration of available paths, the terminal mayselect a cell that serves the purpose required by the terminal orperform a measurement report to select the cell even if the cell doesnot provide maximum throughput.

FIG. 5C illustrates another example of wireless communicationenvironments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5C, the wireless communication environment may be awireless communication environment 500 c or a wireless communicationenvironment 500 d.

Referring to FIG. 5C, the wireless communication environment 500 c andthe wireless communication environment 500 d may include a BS 510, a BS520, and a terminal 570. The BS 510 may provide service to the terminal570 located within a cell 511. The BS 520 may provide service to theterminal 570 located within the cell 521. The cell 511 may provide apath 555, a path 556, and a path 557 to the terminal 570 located at aposition 533. The cell 521 may provide paths 551, 552, and 553 to theterminal 570 located at the position 533.

The wireless communication environment 500 c shows the situation inwhich the terminal 570 moves to the position 533 from the position 531before the obstacle 560 enters. Hereinafter, it is assumed that receivedsignal values increase in the order of the signals received from thepath 551, the path 552, and the path 553, the signal received from thepath 556, the signal received from the path 557, and the signal receivedfrom the path 555. The obstacle 540 has entered the path 555. UnlikeFIG. 5B, it is assumed that the terminal 570 considers the number ofpaths as well as the optimal received signal value when selecting thecell. The terminal 570 may provide the paths 551, 552, and 553 havingreceived signal values greater than the received signal value of thecell 511 and may determine that the cell 521 is the most suitable cellfor handover or is to be added since the cell 521 has the same number ofpaths (three) as the cell 511. The terminal 570 may perform handover tothe cell 521 or perform the access procedure for the cell 521.

The wireless communication environment 500 d shows the situation inwhich the terminal 570 moves to the position 533 from the position 531,after which the obstacle 560 enters. As the obstacle 560 enters, thecell 521 may not provide optimal communication service to the terminal570 through the paths 551 to 553. All links of the cell 521 may beblocked by the one obstacle 560. This is because the paths 551 to 553are not independent paths. The terminal 570 may experience a time delayor the ping-pong phenomenon due to the RLF detection and the recovery,as in FIG. 5B. In contrast, among links of the cell 511, only oneassociated with the path 555 is blocked due to the obstacle 540. Thecell 511 may provide service to the terminal 570 through the independentpaths 556 and 557. When the terminal 570 selects the cell 511, theterminal 570 may not experience the above-described phenomena.

As described with reference to FIG. 5C, when selecting the cell, theuser may avoid all available paths that are blocked by one obstacle byfurther considering the independency of the paths as well the number ofavailable paths. Even though one path is blocked by the obstacle, theremaining paths may be capable of maintaining their connections throughthe selection of a cell that provides independent paths. The independentpaths may refer to paths having low correlation therebetween. Forexample, the paths 551 to 553 have the same or similar directivities andthus have relatively high correlation therebetween. In contrast, thepaths 555 to 557 have different directivities (i.e., relatively divideddirectivities), and thus correspond to independent paths havingrelatively low correlation therebetween. The terminal may identify thepaths having low correlation, thereby compensating for a robustnessproblem due to the directivity characteristics of the beam. Informationon available paths of the cell may be referred to as “PD” of the cell.The PD of the cell may include the degree of independence of theavailable paths, that is, the degree of non-correlation of the availablepaths of the cell. A cell that serves the required purpose may beselected using the PD value as well as the optimal received signalvalue.

Hereinafter, the present disclosure describes an operation ofcalculating a value that represents the cell in consideration of thedirectivity characteristics of the beam. The present disclosuredescribes the operation of determining received signal values inconsideration of a plurality of RSRP values with reference to FIGS. 6,7A, and 7B. The present disclosure also describes the operation ofdetermining the PD value of the cell in order to compensate for therobustness problem with reference to FIGS. 8, 9, and 10.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a wireless communication environmentfor determining an optimal received signal value according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 6, the wireless communication environment may be awireless communication environment 600.

Referring to FIG. 6, the wireless communication environment 600 mayinclude a BS 610, a BS 620, and a terminal 630. The BS 610 and the BS620 may be the BS 110 of FIG. 1. The terminal 630 may be the terminal120 of FIG. 1. The BS 610 may service a cell 611. The BS 610 maycommunicate with the terminal 630 in the cell 611 through beams 641 to647. The BS 620 may service a cell 621. The BS 620 may communicate withthe terminal 630 in the cell 621 through beams 651 to 657. The terminal630 may communicate with the BS 610 or the BS 620 through beams 631 to637. The wireless communication environment 600 may include a BS 680.The BS 680 may be a serving BS of the terminal 630. Hereinafter,although it is described that each of the BS 610, the BS 620, and theterminal 630 perform communication through seven beams, this is only forconvenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limitedthereto. In other words, the terminal 630 may support fifteen beams.

For cell section in handover to a target cell from the serving cell orin an initial access procedure, the terminal 630 may perform measurementon the cells (e.g., the cell 611 and the cell 621). Hereinafter, forconvenience of description, although it is described that an RSRP valueof a received signal is determined by the measurement, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. In addition to the RSRP, RSRQ or RSSImay be measured. When the measurement of the RSRP value of each cell isperformed through the beam 631 of the terminal 630, the terminal 630 mayacquire an RSRP measurement result of “−90 dbm” for the cell 611 and anRSRP measurement result of “−120 dbm” for the cell 621, which is aneighboring cell of the cell 611. Based on the measurement results, thecell 611 may be selected. When the measurement is performed through thebeam 637 of the terminal 630, the terminal 630 may acquire an RSRPmeasurement result of “−140 dbm” for the cell 611 and an RSRPmeasurement value of “−60 dbm” for the cell 621. Based on themeasurement results, the cell 621 may be selected. That is, depending onthe beam used by the terminal 630 for the measurement, different RSRPvalues are measured and different cells are selected (e.g., whether toor not perform handover). As described above, when the apparatussupporting beamforming-based communication, such as the BS 610, the BS620, or the terminal 630, measures received signal values for aparticular cell only through a particular beam or beams, measurementresults may not accurately represent the particular cell. Accordingly,one received signal value corresponding to the cell in consideration ofa plurality of beams is required. The present disclosure describesembodiments of determining one representative received signal valuebased on RSRP values for a plurality of beams. Hereinafter, onerepresentative received strength value may be referred to as an “optimalreceived signal value”, but may also be referred to as “representativereceived signal value”, “representative received strength”, or anotherterm having the equivalent meaning.

RSRP Measurement Using a Plurality of Beams

When measuring neighboring cells, the terminal 630 may be required touse a plurality of beams in order to measure a value that representseach of the neighboring cells. The terminal 630 may measure theneighboring cells through a beam-sweeping operation. One transmissionbeam and one reception beam may configure one path. The terminal 630 maymeasure each path established through configurable beams. The terminal630 may acquire an RSRP value for each of the paths. For example, whenfour transmission beams and two reception beams are supported, theterminal 630 may acquire 8 (=4×2) RSRP values at every sweepinginterval.

The terminal 630 may determine an optimal received signal value for theneighboring cell based on the RSRP values received at every sweepinginterval. Each of the acquired RSRP values may correspond to a path(beam pair or link) determined by one transmission beam and onereception beam. The terminal 630 may derive a value corresponding to theneighboring cell based on the acquired RSRP values. The valuecorresponding to the neighboring cell corresponds to an optimal receivedsignal value for the neighboring cell used in the cell selection and isa value that represents the neighboring cell.

The value that represents the neighboring cell may be one RSRP value ora combination of two or more RSRP values that represent the neighboringcell, or may be determined by filtering the RSRP values at least once.In order to determine the optimal received signal value for theneighboring cell from the acquired RSRP values, the terminal 630 may ormay not perform at least one of layer-1 filtering and layer-3 filtering.The terminal 630 may determine the optimal received signal value for theneighboring cell via various methods, regardless of the order offiltering operation.

The terminal 630 may determine the optimal received signal value for theneighboring cell before performing layer-1 filtering, that is, withoutfiltering. The terminal 630 may determine the optimal received signalvalue for the neighboring cell by performing a calculation operation onall RSRP values at a k^(th) sweeping interval. For example, the terminal630 may determine a maximum value of the RSRP values at the k^(th)sweeping interval as the optimal received signal value for theneighboring cell. In another example, the terminal 630 may determine anaverage value of the RSRP values at the k^(th) sweeping interval as theoptimal received signal value for the neighboring cell. In anotherexample, the terminal 630 may determine the sum of the RSRP values atthe k^(th) sweeping interval as the optimal received signal value forthe neighboring cell.

The terminal 630 may determine an optimal received signal value of acell, as illustrated in FIG. 7A.

FIG. 7A illustrates an example of determining an optimal received signalvalue according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7A, FIG. 7A shows the situation in which the BS 620supports four beams and the terminal 630 supports two beams. Eight pairsof beams are specified per sweeping interval. Accordingly, the terminal630 may acquire eight RSRP values R₁₁, R₂₁, R₃₁, R₄₁, R₁₂, R₂₂, R₃₂, andR₄₂ at one sweeping interval. R_(xy) refers to an x^(th) transmissionbeam (BS beam) and a y^(th) reception beam (terminal beam).

Referring to FIG. 7A, in operation 710, the terminal 630 may determinethe maximum value of the eight RSRP values at a k^(th) interval 701.When the maximum value is R₂₁, the terminal 630 may determine R₂₁ at thek^(th) interval 701 to be a first value 711. Hereinafter, an example ofdetermining a representative value (e.g., the first value 711 or asecond value 716) of the cell at each sweeping interval based on themaximum value is described, but the average value or an arithmetic sumoperation may be used.

In operation 715, the terminal 630 may determine the maximum value ofthe eight RSRP values at a k+1^(th) interval 702. When the maximum valueis R₃₂, the terminal 630 may determine R₃₂ at the k+1^(th) interval 702to be the second value 716.

In operation 720, the terminal 630 may perform layer-1 filtering on eachof the first value 711 and the second value 716. The terminal 630 mayacquire M_(n-1) from the first value 711. The terminal 630 may acquireM_(n) from the second value 716. M_(n-1) and M_(n) may be cell levelvalues.

In operation 730, the terminal 630 may perform layer-3 filtering on theresults of layer-1 filtering. The terminal 630 may acquire F_(n-1) fromM_(n-1). The terminal 630 may acquire F_(n) from M_(n). F_(n) may be thevalue of a cell level. F_(n-1) and F_(n) may be determined according toEquation 1 below.

F _(n)=(1−a)−F _(n-1) +a−M _(n)  Equation 1

In Equation 1, M_(n) denotes the measurement result most recentlyreceived from layer-1. F_(n) denotes an updated measurement result oflayer-3 filtering and is used for a measurement report. F_(n-1) denotesa previous measurement result of layer-3 filtering, and F₀ correspondsto M₁. a denotes a filter constant.

In operation 740, the terminal 630 may evaluate whether reportingcriteria are satisfied. Further, the terminal 630 may generatemeasurement results from the layer-3 filtering results. The terminal 630according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may generatenot only the layer-3 filtering results but also the measurement resultfor the cell 621 based on the PD value of the cell 621. Although notillustrated in FIG. 7A, when the reporting criteria are satisfied, theterminal 630 may report on the generated measurement results to the BS680.

In other embodiments, after performing the layer-3 filtering, theterminal 630 may determine the optimal received signal value for theneighboring cell. For example, for the RSRP values at the k^(th)sweeping interval and the RSRP values at the k+1^(th) sweeping interval,the terminal 630 may perform layer-1 filtering and layer-3 filteringbased on beams of the BS (5GNB′ beams) included in the neighboring cell.As the result of the layer-3 filtering, the terminal 630 may calculate avalue corresponding to each of the beams of the BS. The terminal 630 maydetermine the optimal received signal value for the neighboring cell byperforming a calculation operation on the values corresponding to thebeams of the BS.

In another example, on the RSRP values at the k^(th) sweeping intervaland the RSRP values at the k+1^(th) sweeping interval, the terminal 630may perform layer-1 filtering and layer-3 filtering based on beams ofthe terminal 630 (UE's beams). As a result of the performance of thelayer-3 filtering, the terminal 630 may calculate a value correspondingto each of the beams of the terminal 630. The terminal 630 may calculatethe optimal received signal value for the neighboring cell by performinga calculation operation (e.g., maximum value, average, or sum) on thevalues corresponding to the beams of the terminal 630.

The situation in which the BS 620 supports four beams and the terminal630 supports two beams is described with reference to FIG. 7B.

FIG. 7B illustrates another example of determining an optimal receivedsignal value according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7B, eight pairs of beams are specified per sweepinginterval. Accordingly, the terminal 630 may acquire eight RSRP valuesR₁₁, R₂₁, R₃₁, R₄₁, R₁₂, R₂₂, R₃₂, and R₄₂ at one sweeping interval.R_(xy) refers to an x^(th) transmission beam (BS beam) and a y^(th)reception beam (terminal beam).

Referring to FIG. 7B, in operation 751, the terminal 630 may calculate avalue 761 corresponding to a first beam of the UE 630 at the k^(th)sweeping interval 701. The terminal 630 may calculate the value 761corresponding to the first beam of the terminal 630 through thecalculation operation for the four RSRP values R₁₁, R₂₁, R₃₁, and R₄₁ atthe k^(th) sweeping interval 701. Hereinafter, an example of determininga representative value of the beams of the UE at each sweeping intervalbased on the average value is described, but the maximum value or anarithmetic sum operation may be used.

In operation 752, the terminal 630 may calculate a value 762corresponding to a second beam of the terminal 630 at the k^(th)sweeping interval 701.

In operation 753, the terminal 630 may calculate a value 763corresponding to the first beam of the UE 630 at the k+1^(th) sweepinginterval 702.

In operation 754, the terminal 630 may calculate a value 764corresponding to the second beam of the terminal 630 at the k+1^(th)sweeping interval 702.

In operation 760, the terminal 630 may perform layer-1 filtering on thevalues 761 and 763 corresponding to the first beam. The terminal 630 mayrespectively acquire M_(n-1) and M_(n) for the first beam of theterminal 630 from the values 761 and 763 corresponding to the firstbeam.

In operation 765, the terminal 630 may perform layer-1 filtering on thevalues 762 and 764 corresponding to the second beam. The terminal 630may respectively acquire M_(n-1) and M_(n) for the second beam of theterminal 630 from the values 762 and 764 corresponding to the secondbeam.

In operation 770, the terminal 630 may perform layer-3 filtering on theresult of the layer-1 filtering. The terminal 630 may acquire F_(n-1)for the first beam from M_(n-1) for the first beam. The terminal 630 mayacquire F_(n) for the first beam from M_(n) for the first beam. F_(n-1)and F_(n) may be determined according to Equation 1 above.

In operation 775, the terminal 630 may perform layer-3 filtering on theresult of the layer-1 filtering. The terminal 630 may acquire F_(n) forthe second beam from M_(n) for the second beam. F_(n) may be determinedaccording to Equation 1 above.

In operation 780, the terminal 630 may determine a maximum value betweenthe result of the layer-3 filtering for the first beam of the terminal630 and the result of the layer-3 filtering for the second beam as theoptimal received signal value for the cell 621. As described above, theaverage calculation or the sum calculation may be used in addition tothe calculation of the maximum value between the result of the layer-3filtering for the first beam and the result of the layer-3 filtering forthe second beam.

In operation 790, the terminal 630 may evaluate whether reportingcriteria are satisfied. The terminal 630 may generate a measurementresult from the determined optimal received signal value. The terminal630 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure maygenerate not only the optimal received signal value but also themeasurement result for the cell 621 based on the PD value of the cell621. Although not illustrated in FIG. 7B, when the reporting criteriaare satisfied, the terminal 630 may report on the generated measurementresult to the BS 680, which is the serving BS.

In another example, on the RSRP values at the k^(th) sweeping intervaland the RSRP values at the k+1^(th) sweeping interval, the terminal 630may perform layer-1 filtering and layer-3 filtering based on each ofbeam pairs corresponding to a combination of beams of the neighboring BSincluded in the neighboring cell and beams of the terminal 630. As aresult of the layer-3 filtering, the terminal 630 may calculate a valuecorresponding to each of the beam pairs. The terminal 630 may determinethe optimal received signal value for the neighboring cell by performingthe calculation (e.g., the maximum value, the average value, or the sum)on the values corresponding to the beam pairs.

In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may determine the optimalreceived signal value for the neighboring cell after the layer-1filtering and before the layer-3 filtering.

When the optimal received signal value for the neighboring cell iscalculated before the layer-1 filtering, the terminal 630 may improveaccuracy by reflecting an instantaneous RSRP value. However, due to theperformance of calculations on many RSRP values, a large number ofcalculations may act as a burden on the terminal 630. In contrast tothis, the terminal 630 may reduce the number of calculations bycalculating the optimal received signal value for the neighboring cellafter the layer-3 filtering. In some embodiments, the terminal 630 mayadjust the sequence of the calculation of the optimal received signalvalue for the neighboring cell and the layer-1 filtering and the optimalreceived signal value for the neighboring cell and the layer-3 filteringaccording to a predetermined derivation mode. The terminal 630 mayadaptively control the effects of reduction in calculation amounts andaccuracy improvement by changing the sequence of the calculation of theoptimal received signal value and the filtering operations.

As described above, it is assumed that the terminal 630 measures eachcell in consideration of the beams of the BS 610 or 620 and the beams ofthe terminal 630. The terminal 630 may acquire a measurement value “−90dbm” through the beam 631 as the optimal received signal strength valueof the cell 611. The terminal 630 may acquire a measurement value “−60dbm” through the beam 637 as the optimal received signal strength valueof the cell 621. The terminal 630 may determine to perform handover fromthe cell 611 to the cell 621. In other words, the terminal 630 maydetermine the optimal received signal strength value that represents thecell by considering RSRP values for all beams.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a wireless communication environmentfor determining a PD value according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 8, the wireless communication environment may be awireless communication environment 800.

Referring to FIG. 8, the wireless communication environment 800 mayinclude the BS 610, the BS 620, and the terminal 630 included in thewireless communication environment 600 of FIG. 6. As illustrated in FIG.6, the BS 610 may communicate with the terminal 630 in the cell 611through beams 641 to 647. The BS 620 may communicate with the terminal630 in the cell 621 through beams 651 to 657. The terminal 630 maycommunicate with the BS 610 or the BS 620 through beams 631 to 637. Thewireless communication environment 800 may be an environment furtherincluding an obstacle 810 and an obstacle 820 compared to the wirelesscommunication environment 600. The wireless communication environment800 may include the obstacle 810 between the BS 610 and the terminal630. The wireless communication environment 800 may include the obstacle820 between the BS 620 and the terminal 630.

The terminal 630 may communicate with the BS 610 through a plurality ofbeams 631 to 637. The BS 610 may communicate through a plurality ofbeams 641 to 647. Based on consideration of a downlink, one transmissionbeam of the BS 610 and one reception beam of the terminal 630 mayconfigure one path according to the directivity characteristics of thebeams. For example, 49 (=7×7) paths may exist between the BS 610 and theterminal 630. The terminal 630 may also consider 49 paths in the sameway for the BS 620 as well as the BS 610.

The terminal 630 may measure a neighboring cell (e.g., the cell 611 orthe cell 621) to access a stable cell. The measurement may include anoperation of determining a PD value of the corresponding cell. Some ofthe paths between the terminal 630 and the cell 611 may be blocked bythe obstacle 810. The terminal 630 may determine that there is oneavailable path for the cell 611. The terminal 630 may determine a firstPD value for the one available path. The terminal 630 may guarantee atleast one available path among the paths with the cell 621 due to theobstacle 820. The terminal 630 may determine that there are fouravailable paths for the cell 621. The terminal 630 may determine asecond PD value for the four available paths.

Between the cell 611 and the cell 621, the cell 621 may be selected as acell robust to a state change (i.e., as a stable cell). For example,when searching for a cell to be handed over from the serving cell, theterminal 630 may report on a measurement result based on the second PDvalue to the serving BS 680. Since the second PD value is greater thanthe first PD value, the serving BS 680 may determine to perform handoverof the terminal 630 to the cell 621. In another example, when searchingfor a cell for initial access, the terminal 630 may select the cell 621as the cell that the terminal 630 accesses. As described above, theterminal 630 may consider available paths in order to select the robustcell. The terminal 630 may also indicate the robustness of a particularcell by calculating PD values for the available paths. Even in the caseof the same number of available paths, when beams included in the pathshave relatively high correlation, the PD value may be relatively small.This is because the diversity of paths is not guaranteed.

PD

When measuring the cell 621, the terminal 630 may be required toconsider a degree of non-correlation between available paths as well asthe number of available paths among the paths. Hereinafter, thefollowing description is made based on the beams of the terminal 630,which is the subject that performs the measurement, but a proceduredescribed below may be equally applied to the beams of the BS 620, whichis the target that receives the measurement report.

The terminal 630 may identify beams corresponding to an available pathamong N beams. The available path refers to a path that providesreception power greater than or equal to a threshold value. The terminal630 may determine whether an RSRP value for each of the beams of theterminal 630 is greater than or equal to the threshold value. In someembodiments, the threshold value may refer to minimum reception powerfor communication. In other embodiments, the threshold value may referto minimum reception power that satisfies a data rate and a modulationand coding scheme (MCS) required on an application driven by theterminal 630. In other embodiments, the threshold value may be a valuerandomly set for a cell to be measured.

When an RSRP of an i^(th) beam is greater than or equal to the thresholdvalue, the terminal 630 may insert the i^(th) beam into a beam candidateset. When an RSRP of a j^(th) beam is smaller than the threshold value,the terminal 630 may not insert the j^(th) beam into the beam candidateset. The terminal 630 may identify K beam candidates having RSRP valuesgreater than or equal to the threshold value among the N beams. Pathsthrough the identified K beam candidates may be referred to as effectivepaths, effective links, available paths, or available links.

For identifying the available path, an index (metric) indicating a radioquality, as well as the RSRP, may be used. For example, the terminal 630may identify the available paths based on RSRQ or RSSI, indicating thequality of the received signal through each beam. In another example,the terminal 630 may identify the available paths based on a SNR, aCINR, a SINR, or a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) includinginformation related to noise and/or interference for each beam. Inanother example, the terminal 630 may identify the available paths basedon an index related to an error rate of the signal through each beam,such as an error vector magnitude (EVM), a bit error rate (BER), or ablock error rate (BLER). Although the following description will be madebased on the RSRP, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Asdescribed above, for identifying available paths to determine the PDvalue, various indexes indicating the radio quality may be used.

The terminal 630 may calculate a degree of non-correlation for theavailable paths. The terminal 630 may calculate the degree ofnon-correlation for the available paths based on a beam distance (BD).More specifically, the terminal 630 may calculate the degree ofnon-correlation from a BD between two predetermined beams among thebeams corresponding to the available paths. The BD may be defined as adistance between coordinates indicated by maximum gains in main lobes ofthe two beams. The determination of the BD may be performed asillustrated in FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 illustrates the situation in which the terminal 630 providesfifteen beams according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to, FIG. 9, the graph 900 shows cross sections having halfpower (3 dB) in main lobes of the fifteen beams. The fifteen beams mayhave indexes from 0 to 14. The color corresponding to each beamindicates the strength of the beam corresponding to an axis 980. A BDbetween two beams (i₁th beam and i₂th beam) may be the distance betweencoordinates (x_(i1), y_(i1), z_(i1)) and (x_(i2), y_(i2), z_(i2))indicated by maximum gains in main lobes of the two beams. In someembodiments, the distance between two points may be a Manhattandistance. The BD may be defined as Equation 2 below.

BD _(i) ₁ _(,i) ₂ =|x _(i) ₁ −x _(i) ₂ |+|y _(i) ₁ −y _(i) ₂ |+|z _(i) ₁−z _(i) ₂ |  Equation 2

In Equation 2, BD_(i) ₁ _(,i) ₂ denotes the BD between the i₁th beam andthe i₂th beam. (x_(i1), y_(i1), z_(i1)) denotes a coordinate valuehaving a maximum gain in the main lobe of the i₁th beam in an xyzcoordinate system. (x_(i2), y_(i2), z_(i2)) denotes a coordinate valuehaving a maximum gain in the main lobe of the i₂-th beam in an xyzcoordinate system.

In other embodiments, the distance between two points may be a Euclideandistance. The BD may be defined as Equation 3 below.

BD _(i) ₁ _(,i) ₂ =√{square root over ((x _(i) ₁ −x _(i) ₂ )²+(y _(i) ₁−y _(i) ₂ )²+(z _(i) ₁ −z _(i) ₂ )²)}  Equation 3

In Equation 3, D_(i) ₁ _(,i) ₂ denotes the distance between the i₁thbeam and the i₂th beam. (x_(i1), y_(i1), z_(i1)) denotes a coordinatevalue having a maximum gain in the main lobe of the i₁th beam in an xyzcoordinate system. (x_(i2), y_(i2), z_(i2)) denotes a coordinate valuehaving a maximum gain in the main lobe of the i₂-th beam in an xyzcoordinate system.

The graph 900 may show a BD 906 between a 0th beam and a 6th beam, a BD908 between the 0th beam and an 8th beam, and a BD 911 between the 0thbeam and an i₁th beam. For example, the BD 906 may be 12, the BD 908 maybe 33, and the BD 911 may be 41. When the BD 911 is longer than the BD906, the graph 900 may mean that the 11^(th) beam and the 0th beam areless strongly correlated than the 6^(th) beam and the 0^(th) beam. TheBD determined from the graph 900 may indicate how much two beams areuncorrelated, how much two beams are independent from each other, or howdifferent the directions of the two beams are.

The terminal 630 may store a table indicating BDs of beams supported bythe terminal 630. In some embodiments, the terminal 630 may store atable containing previously calculated BD values of the beams of theterminal 630. The table may show a predetermined pair of two beams and aBD value therebetween. When the number of beams that are supported bythe terminal 630 is N, the terminal 630 may store a table including_(N)C₂ pairs of beams and BD values corresponding to the beam pairs.

In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may store a table includingcoordinate values indicating vectors on three-dimensional beams tocalculate BD values for the beams of the terminal 630. The coordinatevalues may be xyz coordinate system values or polar coordinate values.When the number of beams that are supported by the terminal 630 is N,the terminal 630 may store a parameter set indicating the N beams.

The terminal 630 may identify beams corresponding to available paths anddetermine BD values for the identified beams from the stored table. Theterminal 630 may calculate the PD value of the cell 621 based on thedetermined BD values. The terminal 630 may calculate PD values for theavailable paths. If conditions for a signal strength that guaranteescommunication between the terminal 630 and the BS 620 are not satisfied,the PD may not be guaranteed even for sufficiently uncorrelated paths.Accordingly, the terminal 630 may calculate the PD value based on BDvalues for identified K beams greater than or equal to a thresholdvalue. The terminal 630 may calculate the PD value according to Equation4 below.

$\begin{matrix}{{PD} = {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{K}\; {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{K}{BD}_{i,j}}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4}\end{matrix}$

In Equation 4, PD denotes the PD Value, and BD_(i,j) denotes a BDbetween an i^(th) beam and a j^(th) beam. When i=j, BD_(i,j) is 0. Inthe present disclosure, although it has been described that the terminal630 may identify available paths of a plurality of paths and thendetermine BDs for the identified available paths so as to determine thePD value of the cell, the present disclosure is not limited to the aboveorder. The terminal 630 may determine BDs for all of a plurality ofbeams, identify available paths, and then select BD values only for theavailable paths so as to determine the PD value of the cell.

When a BD between two beams is relatively longer, the BD may mean thatthe two beams are relatively uncorrelated. This may be derived from thesimulation in which communication is performed through a reception beamof one terminal and a transmission beam of one BS in a 28 GHz band. Whenthe terminal determines two predetermined optimal transmission beams,correlation between the two transmission beams is shown as Table 2below. It is assumed that indexes of beams are sequentially indexed in aclockwise direction based on a 0th beam as illustrated in FIG. 9.

TABLE 1 Beam index Case 1 Case 2 difference Case 1 (LOS) Case 2 (LOS)(NLOS) (NLOS) 1 97.07%    97.84%  74.02%  55.01%  2 1.42%   0.67%22.22%  23.25%  3 0.08%   0.18% 4.15% 12.22%  4 0.5%    0.2% 0.55%  6.1%5 0.19%   0.22% 0.03% 2.19% 6 0.02%    0.3%   0%  0.9% 7 0% 0.25% 0.01%0.25% 8 0% 0.17% 0.02% 0.07% 9 0% 0.14%   0% 0.01% 10 0% 0.02%   0%   0%11 0% 0.01%   0%   0%

In case 1, the number of transmission antennas is 8, a half-power beamwidth (3 dB beam width) is 12°, the number of transmission beams is 10,and transmission angles are −54°, 12°, and 54°. In case 2, the number oftransmission antennas is 12, a half-power beam width (3 dB beam width)is 6°, the number of transmission beams is 20, and transmission anglesare −57°, 6°, and 57°. A line of sight (LOS) environment refers to anenvironment in which a straight path between the BS and the terminal issecured, and a non-LOS (NLOS) environment refers to an environment inwhich the straight path is not secured.

When the index difference between two beams is 1 in the LOS environmentof case 1, the possibility that if one beam is blocked, the other beamis also blocked is 97.07%. The blocking of the beam may mean that asignal strength value is equal to or lower than a threshold value. Whenthe index difference between two beams is 11 in the NLOS environment ofcase 2, if one beam is blocked, the other beam is not blocked (0%). Eachelement in Table 1 indicates correlation between two beams having thecorresponding index difference.

Through comparison between the LOS environment of case 1 and the LOSenvironment of case 2, the correlation between beams varies depending onthe number of transmission antenna ports, the half-power beam width, andthe number of transmission beams. In some embodiments, when using thetable to determine the BD of the identified beams, the terminal 630 mayselect the table according to at least one of the number of transmissionantenna ports, the half-power beam width, and the number of transmissionbeams. The terminal 630 may determine the BD based on the selectedtable.

Through comparison between the LOS environment of case 1 and the NLOSenvironment of case 1, the correlation between beams in the NLOSenvironment is lower than the correlation between beams in the LOSenvironment. In some embodiments, when using the table to determine theBD of the identified beams, the terminal 630 may select the tableaccording to whether the channel environment corresponds to the LOSenvironment or the NLOS environment. To this end, the terminal 630 maydetermine whether the channel environment corresponds to the LOSenvironment and determine the correlation between beams based on thetable corresponding to the result of the determination on whether thechannel environment corresponds to the LOS environment. For example, theterminal 630 may determine whether the channel between the BS 610 andthe terminal 630 corresponds to the LOS environment according to achannel impulse response (CIR) of an impulse signal transmitted from theBS 610. The impulse signal may be a reference signal or a separatesignal defined for CIR. The terminal 630 may determine that a firstreceived signal is a signal transmitted through the path having theshortest straight distance. When the value of the first received signalis greater than or equal to a value of a signal received later, theterminal 630 may determine that the channel corresponds to the LOSenvironment. When the value of the first received signal is smaller thanthe value of the signal received later, the terminal 630 may determinethat the channel corresponds to the NLOS environment. The terminal 630may determine the BD based on the selected table according to whetherthe channel environment corresponds to the LOS environment or the NLOSenvironment.

In Table 1, indexes of beams are sequentially indexed from adjacentbeams. As seen in Table 1, the greater a beam index value is, the closerthe correlation is to 0%. In contrast, the smaller the beam index valueis, the closer the correlation is to 100%. Because beams are spacedapart from each other in an actual 3D space, the correlation is low.

Although the present disclosure has described that the terminal 630calculates the PD value for the cell based on BD values for beams of theterminal 630, when BD values for the BS of the cell are acquired, the PDvalue for the target cell may be calculated based on BD values for theBS as well as the BD values for the terminal 630. In some embodiments,the terminal 630 may identify available paths having RSRP greater thanor equal to a threshold value among a plurality of paths. The terminal630 may determine BD values corresponding to beam pairs included in theidentified available paths. For example, the terminal 630 may determineBD values for beams included in a path A and beams included in a path Bbased on the following equation.

BD _(A,B) =BD _(A) _(UE) _(,B) _(UE) +D _(A) _(BS) _(,B) _(BS)  Equation 5

BD_(A,B) denotes a BD value for beams included in the path A and beamsincluded in the path B. BD_(A) _(UE) _(,B) _(UE) denotes a BD valuebetween a beam of a terminal included in the path A and a beam of aterminal included in the path B. BD_(A) _(BS) _(,B) _(BS) denotes a BDvalue between a beam of a BS included in the path A and a beam of a BSincluded in the path B. Although the add operation has been described asan example, other operations such as a multiplication operation may beused.

The terminal 630 may acquire information on BD values of the BS invarious ways. In some embodiments, the terminal 630 may acquireinformation on BD values of the BS through measurement configurationinformation received from the serving BS 680. In other embodiments, theterminal 630 may receive a separate message from the BS and acquireinformation on the BD values of the BS. In other embodiments, theterminal 630 may share in advance the information on the BD values ofthe BS. At this time, the BS may communicate with the terminal 630through beams in a predetermined way.

In the present disclosure, the BD may be defined in a manner that isdifferent from that described above. In some embodiments, a BD betweentwo beams (i^(th) beam and j^(th) beam) may be defined as a value thatis determined based on a difference between at least one first parameterindicating (or forming) the i^(th) beam and at least one secondparameter indicating (or forming) the j^(th) beam. At least one firstparameter or at least one second parameter may be referred to as abeamforming parameter. For example, the beamforming parameter mayinclude at least one of an index of a precoding codebook used in adigital end, a beamforming matrix, and a beamforming vector. In anotherexample, the beamforming parameter may include at least one of a phaseand size value for each antenna and a physical attitude control valuefor an antenna (e.g., a rotation quantity or a tilting quantity).

For example, the terminal 630 may calculate a degree of non-correlationbetween the available paths based on indexes of the codebook. Theterminal 630 may calculate the degree of non-correlation from indexes ofthe codebook indicating beams corresponding to the available paths andconfiguration of the codebook. The codebook may be a codebook having adual-codebook structure for antennas in a 2D array. The indexes of thecodebook may include an index for a first dimension (e.g., a horizontaldimension) and an index for a second dimension (e.g., a verticaldimension). For example, the indexes of the codebook (W) may include anindex i_(1,1) for a horizontal dimensional and an index i_(1,2) for avertical dimensional of a first codebook (W₁), and an index i₂ of asecond codebook (W₂). The codebook (W) may be indicated by a pattern bya function x for the index i_(1,1), a function y for the index i_(1,2),and a codebook configuration, and the index i₂ included in the pattern.Each index may indicate a beam direction and a component for a beam in aparticular direction. The terminal 630 may determine a PMI for beamsgreater than or equal to a threshold value for reference signalsreceived from the serving BS 680 through beams. The terminal 630 maydetermine correlation between beams corresponding to available pathsbased on designated codebook configuration and a difference valuebetween parameters (e.g., x and y) corresponding to the determined PMIor a difference value between the indexes (e.g., i_(1,1) and i_(1,2)).

Although the present disclosure describes that the PD value for the cellis calculated based on the BD value for each beam, the PD value for thecell may be calculated without using the BD. In some embodiments, theterminal 630 may receive signals, which have not been beamformed, andcalculate the PD value for the cell. The BS 620 to be measured maytransmit a non-beamformed reference signal, that is, an omnidirectionalreference signal. The omnidirectional reference signal may be a signalseparately defined for calculating the PD value or one type of thereference signal. The terminal 630 may receive the omnidirectionalreference signal. The reference signal transmitted through a radiochannel may be received through multiple paths, and the terminal 630 mayreceive a plurality of components of the reference signal at differenttime points. The terminal 630 may identify components greater than orequal to a threshold value among the plurality of components of thereceived reference signal. The terminal 630 may determine a receptiontime point value for each of the components greater than or equal to thethreshold value. The terminal 630 may determine the PD value for thecell based on distribution of the reception time point values for eachof the components greater than or equal to the threshold value. Forexample, when a relatively large number of components greater than orequal to the threshold value is distributed within a predeterminedinterval, the terminal 630 may determine the PD value for thecorresponding cell to be small. In contrast, when reception time pointvalues of the many components greater than or equal to the thresholdvalue are distributed at a predetermined interval or longer, theterminal 630 may determine the PD value for the corresponding cell to begreat.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of comparison between PD values accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 10, a path set 1010 may include seven available paths.Reception beams included in the available paths associated with the pathset 1010 may form angles of 30° therebetween. A path set 1020 mayinclude five available paths. Reception beams included in the availablepaths associated with the path set 1020 may form angles of 45°therebetween. A path set 1030 may include three available paths.Reception beams included in the available paths associated with the pathset 1030 may form an angle of 90° therebetween. A path set 1040 mayinclude two available paths. Reception beams included in the availablepaths associated with the path set 1040 may form an angle of 90°therebetween. A path set 1050 may include two available paths. Receptionbeams included in the available paths associated with the path set 1050may form an angle of 45° therebetween. A path set 1060 may include oneavailable path. A reception beam of the terminal 630 included in theavailable path associated with the path set 1060 corresponds to a BD andmay have a basic value (e.g., 0).

Referring to Equation 4 above, the terminal 630 may determine that thePD value for the path set 1010 having the largest number of availablepaths is greatest. Since the angle formed between two beams in the pathset 1040 is greater than the angle formed between two beams in the pathset 1050, the terminal 630 may determine that the PD value for the pathset 1040 is greater than the PD value for the path set 1050. This isbecause the two beams are more independent as the angle (equal to orsmaller than 180°) formed by two beams is greater. The terminal 630 maydetermine that the PD values increase in the order of the path set 1010,the path set 1020, the path set 1030, the path set 1040, the path set1050, and the path set 1060. As the number of available paths increases,the PD value has a greater value. As BD values for available paths havea greater value, the PD value may have a greater value.

The terminal 630 may determine a value that represents the cell(hereinafter, referred to as a CRV)) based on the optimal receivedsignal value for the cell calculated in FIGS. 6 to 7B and the PD valueof the cell determined in FIGS. 8, 9, and 10. In some embodiments, theterminal 630 may determine the CRV based on Equation 6 below.

CRV=∂*Best BRSRP+(1−∂)*Path Diversity  Equation 6

In Equation 6, CRV denotes the CRV, best BRSRP denotes the optimalreceived signal value for the cell, PD denotes the PD value for thecell, and a denotes a weighting factor.

By adaptively controlling the weighting factor ∂ according to thesituation, the characteristics of the CRV may vary. For example, whenthe weighting factor ∂ is relatively great, a CRV calculated byassigning a greater weighted value to best BRSRP than PD may bedetermined. When the weighting factor ∂ is relatively great, it is morelikely to select a cell that may provide high throughput. In contrast,when the weighting factor ∂ is relatively small, a CRV calculated byassigning a smaller weighted value to best BRSRP than PD may bedetermined. When the weighting factor ∂ is relatively small, it is morelikely to select a cell robust to a channel change due to an obstacle ormovement of the terminal.

The best BRSRP may be an indication value indicating the optimalreceived signal value for the cell. The reported value may be one of 98values from 0 to 97. The best BRSRP may be determined based on thefollowing table.

TABLE 2 Indication value Optimal received signal value (RSRP) Unit 00RSRP < −140 dbm 01 −140 £ RSRP < −139 dbm 02 −139 £ RSRP < −138 dbm . .. . . . dbm 95 −46 £ RSRP < −45 dbm 96 −45 £ RSRP < −44 dbm 97 −44 £RSRP dbm

PD may be an index indicating the PD value for the cell. In someembodiments, the index may be one of 98 values from 0 to 97. Theterminal 630 may normalize the PD value for the cell. For example, theterminal 630 may map the PD value for the cell to a mapping valuecorresponding to one of the values from 0 to 97. For example, theterminal 630 may determine a mapping value corresponding to the PD valuefor the cell based on Equation 7 below.

$\begin{matrix}{V_{mapped} = \left\lfloor \frac{98*\left( {V_{original} - V_{\min}} \right)}{V_{\max} - V_{\min} + 1} \right\rfloor} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 7}\end{matrix}$

In Equation 7, V_(mapped) denotes the mapping value and V_(original)denotes the PD value for the cell. V_(max) denotes the greater valueamong PD values to be mapped through Equation 7. V_(min) denotes thesmallest value among the PD values to be mapped through Equation 7.

The terminal 630 may store a table including ranges of the 98 PD valuesand indexes corresponding thereto. The terminal 630 may calculate aparticular PD based on the stored table, identify a corresponding index,and determine a CRV through the identified index. The terminal 630 maydetermine that the CRV is a value greater than or equal to 0 and equalto or smaller than 97 by controlling best BRSRP and PD to be greaterthan or equal to 0 and equal to or smaller than 97.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal630 may determine the representative value for the cell. For example,the representative value may be determined as Equation 6. In this case,in order to determine the representative value, the determination of theweighting factor ∂ is required. The terminal 630 may acquire theweighting factor ∂ through various methods.

In some embodiments, the terminal 630 may receive the weighting factor ∂from the serving BS 680. The serving BS 680 may be a BS that supportsthe serving cell providing service to the terminal 630. The serving BS680 may determine the weighting factor ∂ for the terminal 630. Forexample, the serving BS 680 may determine the weighting factor ∂ basedon information on neighboring cells near the terminal 630. Theinformation on the neighboring cells may include at least one piece offrequency-band information, beam information, location information, andtopology information of each of the neighboring cells. The topologyinformation may be synthetic information on locations of the BSs thatsupport the neighboring cells, a connection network relation (e.g.,wireless backhaul or wired backhaul), and directions of supported beams.The serving BS 680 may estimate the value of the number of availablepaths or independent paths of the terminal 630 from the information onthe neighboring cells near the terminal 630. When the number ofavailable paths or independent paths of each of the neighboring cells isgreater than or equal to a threshold value, it may be determined thatrobustness greater than or equal to a predetermined level is guaranteed.Accordingly, the serving BS 680 may determine the weighting factor ∂ tobe relatively greater such that the cell is selected based on throughputof the signal.

The serving BS 680 may provide the determined weighting factor ∂ to theterminal 630. For example, the serving BS 680 may insert the weightingfactor ∂ into measurement configuration information transmitted in FIG.12A described below. The serving BS 680 may transmit the measurementconfiguration information containing the weighting factor ∂ to theterminal 630. In another example, the serving BS 680 may also transmitthe weighting factor ∂ to the terminal 630 through a separate downlinkchannel.

The serving BS 680 may transmit a control signal to the terminal 630instead of directly transmitting the determined weighting factor ∂ tothe terminal 630. The control signal may be a signal indicating thedifference between a previous weighting factor and a newly determinedweighting factor. For example, the control signal may be a signalindicating one of increase, decrease, and keep. In addition, the controlsignal may be a signal indicating a default value.

In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may acquire the weighting factor∂ according to the internal configuration of the terminal 630. Forexample, the terminal 630 may differently set the weighting factor ∂depending on the set to which a driven application belongs. When thedriven application belongs to an application set that requires seamlessservice, such as a streaming service, the terminal 630 may set theweighting factor ∂ to be smaller. This is because the seamless servicerequires channel robustness more than high signal throughput.

In another example, the terminal 630 may set the weighting factor ∂differently depending on a detected movement speed of the terminal 630.When the terminal 630 move relatively slowly, the weighting factor ∂ maybe set to be great. This is because it is determined that security forthe channel is guaranteed due to low mobility, and thus the terminal 630requires high signal throughput.

In another example, the terminal 630 may set the weighting factor ∂differently depending on the internal state (e.g., a battery state or abrightness state) of the terminal 630. When the charge level of thebattery of the terminal 630 is relatively low, the terminal 630 may setthe weighting factor ∂ to be small such that a signal having lowthroughput is received.

In another example, the terminal 630 may set the weighting factor 3 to apredetermined value according to settings by the user of the terminal630. The user of the terminal 630 may input a value corresponding to theweighting factor through a user interface (UI) provided by the terminal630. The terminal 630 may set the weighting factor ∂ to be the inputvalue. The terminal 630 may measure the cell 621 based on the setweighting factor ∂.

Based on the measurement, the cell having the greatest CRV may beselected. For example, like the handover procedure in FIG. 12A describedbelow, the terminal 630 may transmit a measurement report including themeasurement result of the cell 621 to the serving BS 680. The serving BS680 may select the cell by comparing the CRV of the cell 621 with CRVsof other cells. In another example, like the initial access procedure inFIG. 12B, which is described below, the terminal 630 may select the cell621 as a cell to be accessed by comparing the CRV of the cell 621 withCRVs of other cells.

FIG. 11A is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal fordetermining a CRV according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.The terminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 11A, in operation 1110, the terminal 630 may determinea signal strength value for a first cell. The first cell may be aserving cell or a neighboring cell of the terminal 630. The signalstrength value may be an optimal received signal strength valuecalculated through measurement of a reference signal by the terminal630. The signal strength value may be a signal strength value thatrepresents the first cell. The reference signal may be a beamformedreference signal. The reference signal may be a cell-specific referencesignal (CRS), a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), ora demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS). The terminal 630 may usedifferent types of reference signals depending on whether an RRCconnection with the serving cell is established.

The terminal 630 may acquire a signal strength value for each of thereceived reference signals. The terminal 630 may determine an optimalreceived signal value that represents the first cell from the acquiredsignal strength values. The terminal 630 may determine the optimalreceived signal value for the first cell from the acquired signal valuesbefore performing at least one of layer-1 filtering and layer-3filtering. For example, through a calculation operation of calculatingthe greatest value of the signal strength values acquired at a k^(th)sweeping interval, the terminal 630 may determine an optimal receivedsignal value corresponding to the k^(th) sweeping interval. Afterlayer-3 filtering, the terminal 630 may determine the optimal receivedsignal value for the first cell. For example, by performing a firstcalculation operation on (e.g., determining a maximum value, summing, oraveraging) signal strength values corresponding to a first receptionbeam of the terminal 630 at the k^(th) sweeping interval, the terminal630 may determine a signal strength value that represents the firstreception beam. The terminal 630 may perform layer-1 filtering andlayer-3 filtering on the signal strength value that represents the firstreception beam. The terminal 630 may determine the signal strength valuethat represents the first cell by performing a second calculationoperation on (e.g., determining a maximum value, summing, or averaging)signal strength values that represent respective reception beams of theterminal 630 having passed through layer-3 filtering. The signalstrength value that represents the first cell may be the optimalreceived signal value for the first cell.

In operation 1120, the terminal 630 may determine a PD value for thefirst cell. The PD value for the first cell may be a parameter valueindicating a degree of non-correlation between paths associated with thefirst cell. The terminal 630 may identify available paths among aplurality of paths between the terminal 630 and the first cell,determine BD values of beams included in the available paths, anddetermine a PD value for the first cell based on the determined BDvalues. The greater the determined BD values, the greater the PD value.The greater the number of determined BD values, the greater the PDvalue. For example, the terminal 630 may determine the BD based onEquation 4 or Equation 5 above.

In operation 1130, the terminal 630 may determine the representativevalue for the first cell based on the signal strength value and the PDvalue. The terminal 630 may determine the representative value for thefirst cell based on the weighting factor as well as the signal strengthvalue and the PD value. The terminal 630 may determine a first weightedvalue and a second weighted value from the weighting factor. The firstweighting factor may be inversely proportional to the second weightedvalue. The greater the first weighted value, the smaller the secondweighted value. For example, when the first weighted value is ∂, thesecond weighted value may be 1−∂. The terminal 630 may determine therepresentative value (that is, the CRV) for the first cell by applyingthe first weighted value to the signal strength value and applying thesecond weighted value to the PD value. For example, the terminal 630 maydetermine the CRV for the first cell based on Equation 6 above.

FIG. 11B is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal forcell selection according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Theterminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 11B, in operation 1160, the terminal 630 may acquirethe representative value for the first cell. The terminal 630 maydetermine the representative value for the first cell based on theoptimal received signal value for the first cell and the PD value, asdescribed in FIG. 11A.

In operation 1170, the terminal 630 may communicate through the selectedcell based on the representative value for the first cell. For example,the terminal 630 may select the cell based on a measurement result andtransmit a random-access signal for performing initial access to theselected cell. In another example, the terminal 630 may transmit amessage including the measurement result to the serving BS 680 andcommunicate with the selected cell via the serving BS 680.

In some embodiments, the cell may be selected by the terminal 630. Theterminal 630 may be a terminal before the initial access. The terminal630 may compare measurement results for a plurality of cells. Theterminal 630 may compare CRVs of the plurality of cells. The terminal630 may select the cell having the greatest value among the CRVs. Theselection may also be referred to as initial cell selection. Forexample, when the terminal 630 is a terminal supporting CA, the BS 610may determine that the selected cell is a primary cell (Pcell). Inanother example, when the terminal 630 supports DC, the BS 610 maydetermine that the selected cell is a Pcell of a MCG (or second cellgroup).

After receiving system information from the BS supporting the selectedcell, the terminal 630 may establish an RRC connection with the selectedcell. After finishing the access procedure with the selected cell, theterminal 630 may perform communication through the selected cell.

In other embodiments, the cell may be selected by the serving BS 680 ofthe terminal 630. The terminal 630 may perform a measurement reportprocedure. The terminal 630 may transmit a measurement result for eachof neighboring cells of the terminal 630 to the serving BS 680. The BS680 may select the cell having the greatest value among CRVs included inthe measurement results. For example, if the terminal 630 is a terminalsupporting CA, the BS 680 may determine that the selected cell is asecondary cell (Scell). In another example, when the terminal 630supports DC, the BS 680 may determine that the selected cell is an Scellof a secondary cell group (SCG). In yet another example, the BS 610 mayperform handover to the selected cell.

The BS 680 may transmit a control instruction to the terminal 630 toperform communication through the selected cell. The terminal 630 maycommunicate with the selected cell based on the control instruction.

FIG. 12A illustrates an example of a measurement report according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12A, operations of the measurement report may beperformed between the terminal and the BS. The terminal may be theterminal 630 of FIG. 6. The BS may be the serving BS 680 of the terminal630. Hereinafter, the situation in which the terminal 630 measures aneighboring cell will be described.

Referring to FIG. 12A, in operation 1210, the serving BS 680 maytransmit a measurement configuration message to the terminal 630. Themeasurement configuration message may contain measurement configurationinformation. The measurement configuration information may include (i)measurement object information, (ii) reporting configurationinformation, (iii) measurement identity information, (iv) quantityconfiguration information, and (v) measurement gap information. Themeasurement configuration information may further include a weightingfactor ∂ for determining a CRV.

The measurement object information may indicate an object to be measuredby the terminal 630. The measurement object information may indicate atleast one of an intra-cell object within a cell, an inter-cellmeasurement object, and an inter-radio access technology (RAT)measurement object. The measurement object information may indicatecells (hereinafter, 5G cells) of a BS supporting beamforming. Theterminal 630 may measure the 5G cells. For example, the measurementobject information may indicate the cell 621, which is a neighboringcell serviced by the neighboring BS 620, as the measurement object. Theterminal 630 may select a MCG for DC by measuring PD values for the 5Gcells.

The reporting configuration information may indicate a reporting type ora reporting condition about a time point at which the measurement resultis reported by the terminal 630. The reporting type indicates the typeof measurement result. The reporting type may indicate whether themeasurement result corresponds to path-diversity-based measurement oroptimal-received-signal-based measurement. The reporting condition maybe information on an event that triggers the report on the measurementresult by the terminal 630 and the period of the report. The reportingconditions may include a condition associated with the PD. For example,the reporting conditions may include a condition that the PD value ofthe serving cell is equal to or smaller than a threshold value. Inanother example, the reporting conditions may include a condition thatthe PD value of the cell 621 corresponding to the neighboring cell islarger than or equal to the threshold value.

The measurement identity information may be information on a measurementidentity indicating the measurement object, which the terminal 630reports, when the terminal 630 reports the measurement object, and thetype of the report based on a link between the measurement object andreport configuration. The quantity configuration information may beparameter information on filtering of a measurement unit, a report unit,and a measurement result value. The measurement gap information may beinformation on a measurement gap corresponding to a section that can beused by the terminal 630 for measurement without consideration of datatransmission with the serving cell.

In operation 1220, the terminal 630 may perform the measurement based onthe received measurement configuration information. The terminal 630 maymeasure a cell indicated by measurement object information included inthe measurement configuration information. For example, the terminal 630may measure the cell 621. When a reporting condition contained in thereporting configuration information included in the measurementconfiguration information is satisfied, the terminal 630 may measure theindicated cell. For example, when a condition associated with PD issatisfied, the terminal 630 may measure the cell 621.

In operation 1230, the terminal 630 may report a measurement result tothe serving BS 680. The message including the measurement result may bereferred to as a measurement report message. The measurement reportmessage may include a measurement identity, a representative value ofthe serving cell, and a representative value of the cell 621corresponding to the measured neighboring cell. The measurement identitymay be a measurement identity associated with the reportingconfiguration of the satisfied reporting condition. The measurementidentity may indicate the cell 621.

FIG. 12B illustrates an example of an access procedure according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12B, operations of the access procedure may beperformed between the terminal and the BS. The terminal may be theterminal 630 of FIG. 6. The BS may be a BS supporting a cell selected bythe terminal 630. For example, the BS may be the BS 620 of FIG. 6.Hereinafter, a situation in which the terminal 630 selects a cell andaccesses the selected cell will be described.

Referring to FIG. 12B, in operation 1270, the terminal 630 may performmeasurement. The terminal 630 may measure neighboring cells of theterminal 630. For example, the terminal 630 may measure the cell 621. Asa result of the measurement, the terminal 630 may determine an optimalreceived signal value and a PD value for each of the neighboring cells.The terminal 630 may determine a CRV of each of the neighboring cellsbased on each of the optimal received signal values and the PD values.The terminal 630 may determine the CRV of each of the neighboring cellsby controlling a weighting factor to serve a given purpose. For example,when a cell that requires channel robustness is needed, the terminal 630may determine the CRV of each of the neighboring cells by applying agreater weighted value to the PD value. The terminal 630 may identifythe CRV having the greatest value (hereinafter, referred to as a maximumCRV) among the CRVs of the neighboring cells. The terminal 630 mayselect a cell corresponding to the maximum CRV among the neighboringcells.

In operation 1280, the terminal 630 may transmit random-access preambleto the BS supporting the selected cell. For example, the terminal 630may transmit the random-access preamble to the BS 620 supporting theselected cell 621. By transmitting the random-access preamble, theterminal 630 may inform the BS 620 that there is an attempt to accessthe cell 621, and the BS 620 may estimate a delay with the terminal 630.

FIGS. 6, 7A, 7B, 8, 9, 10, 11A, 11B, 12A, and 12B have described themethod of determining the CRV that represents a predetermined cell. Inthe method of determining the CRV, the weighting factor may beadaptively set. For example, the weighting factor may need to beconfigured differently for the case in which the cell is selected with afocus on cell robustness and the case in which the cell is selected witha focus on data throughput of the cell. Hereinafter, FIGS. 13, 14, 15,16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 illustrate various embodiments ofselecting an optimal cell by adaptively controlling a weighting factordepending on the situation.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of cell selection for a terminal thatsupports CA according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Theterminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 13, the terminal 630 may be a terminal that supportsCA technology using two or more component carriers (CCs) to support awide transmission bandwidth. The two or more CCs may include a primarycomponent carrier (PCC) and a secondary component carrier (SCC). In thePCC, a cell that provides service to the terminal 630 may be referred toas a Pcell. In the SCC, a cell that provides a service to the terminal630 may be referred to as a Scell. The Pcell and the Scell may be usedas serving cells.

Referring to FIG. 13, a wireless communication environment 1300 may be awireless communication environment including the terminal 630 thatsupports CA. The wireless communication environment 1300 may include aBS 1310 and a BS 1320. The BS 1310 may provide service to a cell 1311.The BS 1320 may provide service to a cell 1321. The cell 1311 mayprovide a path 1355, a path 1356, and a path 1357 to the terminal 630located at a position 1333. The cell 1321 may provide the path 1351 tothe terminal 630 located at the position 1333.

When the terminal 630 has no serving cell (e.g., in an idle mode), theterminal 630 may perform a cell search in order to select a cell. Theterminal 630 may select a cell having the greatest measurement valueamong the found cells. The measurement values may be CRVs that representthe found cells. The selected cell may be a Pcell. The terminal 630 mayreceive system information of the cell from the BS supporting theselected cell. The terminal 630 may access the selected cell through arandom-access operation with the BS. In order to establish an RRCconnection with the selected cell, the terminal 630 may transmit orreceive control signaling to or from the BS supporting the selectedcell. When selecting the Pcell, the terminal 630 may transmit or receivecontrol information such as system information, a control signal, arandom-access preamble, and a random-access response to or from the BS.The transmission of the control information may require robustnessagainst a channel state change. Accordingly, when selecting the Pcell,the terminal 630 may be required to select a cell having relatively highrobustness against the channel change.

The terminal 630 may select the cell having the greatest value among theCRVs of the cells. The terminal 630 may determine the CRV of each cellby applying a greater weighted value to PD for each cell than theweighted value applied to a received signal value. This is because thetransmission of the control information should intensively consider thePD in order to prevent the generation of problems such as a transmissiondelay due to transmission blocking, like RLF or recovery. For example,the terminal 630 may set the weighting factor in Equation 6 above to berelatively small. The weighting factor may have a value smaller than0.5. The terminal 630 may select the cell 1311 having the greater PDvalue between the cells 1311 and 1321.

When the terminal 630 has a serving cell, the terminal 630 may perform ameasurement report in order to increase a transmission rate by addingthe cell. The terminal 630 may report the result of measurement to a BS(hereinafter referred to as a serving BS) supporting the serving cell.The serving BS may select the cell having the greatest measurement valueamong measurement values for neighboring cells of the terminal 630received from the terminal 630. The measurement value may be a CRVincluded in the measurement report. The selected cell may be an S cell.When the Scell already belongs to the serving cell, the selected cellmay be serviced to the terminal 630 as an additional Scell. The terminal630 may transmit or receive a larger amount of data through the selectedor added Scell. General data transmission may require a higher datatransmission rate while requiring relatively lower robustness thancontrol information transmission. Accordingly, when selecting or addingthe Scell, the serving BS may be required to select a cell havingrelatively high data transmission and data throughput.

The serving BS may select the cell having the greatest value among theCRVs of the cells. The terminal 630 may determine the CRV of each cellby applying a greater weighted value to the optimal received signalvalue of each cell than a weighted value applied to the PD of each cell.This is because data transmission intensively considers an amount oftransmission, throughput, and output rather than problems of errors dueto transmission blocks of control information. Further, the Scell may berelatively more easily added/released than the Pcell, and thus mayintensively consider throughput, unlike the Pcell. For example, theterminal 630 may set the weighting factor in Equation 6 to be relativelygreat. The weighting factor may have a value greater than 0.5. Theserving BS may select the cell 1311 having a path 1351 of a higherpriority of RSRP between the cells 1311 and 1321. When the serving BS isthe BS 1310 supporting the cell 1311, the CA may be referred to asintra-eNB CA. When the serving BS is different from the BS 1310supporting the cell 1311, the CA may be referred to as inter-eNB CA.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, when a first weighted valueapplied to the optimal received signal value of the cell is greater thana second weighted value applied to the PD value of the cell in thedetermination of the CRV for each neighboring cell, the operation modeof the terminal 630 may be referred to as anoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. In contrast, when thefirst weighted value is smaller than the second weighted value, theoperation mode of the terminal 630 may be referred to as apath-diversity-based cell selection mode. However, the terms do notlimit the detailed operation of the terminal 630. The operation ofdetermining one of the operation modes by the terminal 630 is notnecessary. The terminal 630 may adaptively set the weighting factor ∂depending on the situation. The number of candidates of the weightingfactor may be two or more according to the internal settings of theterminal 630.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of cell selection by aterminal supporting CA according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The terminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6. Hereinafter,the operation of the terminal 630 based on the assumption of thewireless communication environment 1300 of FIG. 13 will be described.

Referring to FIG. 14, in operation 1410, the terminal 630 may set theoperation mode as the path-diversity-based cell selection mode beforeinitial access. By setting the weighted factor to be small, the terminal630 may set the weighted value to be applied to the PD value to begreater than the weighted value to be applied to the optimal receivedsignal value.

In operation 1420, the terminal 630 may perform beam sweeping. Theterminal 630 may receive reference signals from neighboring cellsthrough the beam-sweeping operation. The reference signals may bebeamformed reference signals. The terminal 630 may calculate the optimalreceived signal value for each cell from the received reference signals.For example, in the manner described in FIGS. 6, 7A, and 7B, theterminal 630 may calculate the optimal received signal value for eachcell. The terminal 630 may identify at least one available path based onthe reference signals received from the cells. The terminal 630 maydetermine BD values for at least one identified available path. Theterminal 630 may determine a PD value of each cell from the determinedBD values. The terminal 630 may determine the CRV of each cell based onthe calculated optimal received signal value and the PD value. When thenumber of neighboring cells of the terminal 630 is N, the terminal 630may determine N CRVs corresponding to the respective neighboring cells.

In operation 1430, the terminal 630 may select a Pcell. The terminal 630may identify the greatest CRV among the CRVs acquired as a result of thebeam sweeping in operation 1420. The terminal 630 may select the cellcorresponding to the greatest CRV as the Pcell. Currently, the operationmode of the terminal 630 is the path-diversity-based cell selectionmode, and thus the selected Pcell may be a cell selected in intensiveconsideration of the PD value.

In operation 1440, the terminal 630 may identify whether CA issupported. When CA is not supported, the terminal 630 may end theoperation for additional cell selection. The Pcell is provided to theterminal 630 as a single cell. The terminal 630 may perform operation1450 when CA is supported. The terminal 630 may perform operation 1450to select an Scell.

In operation 1450, the terminal 630 may set the operation mode as theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. When the previousoperation mode of the terminal 630 is the path-diversity-based cellselection mode, the terminal 630 may change the weighting factor. Bysetting the weighting value to be relatively great, the terminal 630 mayassign a greater weighted value to be applied the optimal receivedsignal value than the weighted value to be applied to the PD value.

In operation 1460, the terminal 630 may determine a CRV for selectingthe Scell.

In some embodiments, the terminal 630 may measure each of theneighboring cells to select the Scell. The terminal 630 may determinethe CRV for each of the neighboring cells based on the measurement.Unlike the value used for selecting the Pcell, a newly applied weightedfactor may be a value that applies a higher weighted value to theoptimal received signal value of each cell than a weighted value appliedto the PD value for each cell. In other embodiments, the terminal 630may determine the CRV for selecting the Scell based on values calculatedwhen the Pcell or another Scell is selected. For example, the terminal630 may newly calculate the CRV for each cell based on the optimalreceived signal and the PD value for each of the neighboring cellsacquired when the Pcell is selected and the newly set weighting factor.The terminal 630 may report the calculated CRVs to the serving BS thatprovides the Pcell.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 14, the serving BS may select the Scellto provide service to the terminal 630 based on the reported CRVs. Theserving BS may select the cell corresponding to the greatest CRV as theScell. When a supported Scell already exists, the serving BS may add theselected Scell.

Although FIG. 14 shows that operations 1410 to 1460 are sequentiallyperformed, some operations may be omitted or the next operation may beperformed after a considerable amount of time has passed. For example,when the terminal 630 has the serving cell, the terminal 630 may notperform operations 1410 to 1430. Further, when the serving cell includesthe Pcell and the Scell, the terminal 630 may perform only operations1450 to 1460 without 1410 to 1440 in order to add the Scell. In anotherexample, when a condition to select the S cell is not satisfied afteroperation 1450, the terminal 630 may perform operation 1460 after aconsiderable amount of time has passed.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a cell group and cell selection for aterminal supporting DC according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The terminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 15, the BS may be divided into a macro BS, a pico BS,and a femto BS according to a covered area. The macro BS may be a BSthat provides a cell (hereinafter referred to as a macro cell) of arelatively wide area compared to the pico BS or the femto BS. The picoBS or the femto BS may be referred to as a small BS. A cell of the smallBS may be referred to as a small cell. The terminal 630 may receiveservice through the macro cell and a plurality of small cells. In orderto solve the problem occurring due to handover between the plurality ofsmall cells, the terminal 630 may support DC technology for dividing aBS (hereinafter, referred to as a master eNB (MeNB)) in charge ofcontrol signaling and a BS (hereinafter, referred to as a secondary eNB(SeNB)) in charge of data transmission.

Referring to FIG. 15, a wireless communication environment 1500 may be awireless communication environment including the terminal 630 thatsupports DC. The wireless communication environment 1500 may include aBS 1510 and a BS 1520. The BS 1510 may provide service to a cell 1511.The BS 1520 may provide service to a cell 1521. The cell 1511 mayprovide a path 1555, a path 1556, and a path 1557 to the terminal 630located at a position 1533. The cell 1521 may provide the path 1551 tothe terminal 630 located at the position 1533.

When the terminal 630 has no serving cell (e.g., in an idle mode), theterminal 630 may perform a cell search in order to select a cell. Theterminal 630 may select the cell having the greatest measurement valueamong the found cells. The measurement value may be a CRV thatrepresents the found cells. The terminal 630 may set a BS supporting theselected cell as a MeNB. The cell may be a Pcell. As described in FIG.13, when selecting the Pcell, the terminal 630 may be required to selecta cell having relatively high robustness against channel change. In thedetermination of a CRV of each cell, the terminal 630 may determine theCRV by applying a higher weighted value to the PD for each cell than theweighted value applied to the optimal received signal value. Forexample, the terminal 630 may set the weighted factor in Equation 6above to be relatively small. The terminal 630 may select the cell 1511having a greater PD value between the cells 1521 and 1511. As the cell1511 is selected, the terminal 630 may set the BS 1510 as the MeNB. Whenthe terminal 630 is a terminal supporting CA, another cell (not shown),other than the cell 1511 provided by the MeNB, may be additionally setin the terminal 630. The other cell may be an Scell. A group of servingcells (the cell 1511 and the other cell) provided by the MeNB may bereferred to as a MCG. The MCG may include one Pcell and at least oneScell.

After setting the MeNB, the terminal 630 may perform a measurementreport in order to set the SeNB. The terminal 630 may report the resultof the measurement to the MeNB (e.g., the BS 1510). The MeNB may selectthe SeNB based on measurement reports on neighboring cells of theterminal 630 received from the terminal 630. The SeNB may be a BS set tomanage additional radio resources for increasing the amount of outputdata. However, the SeNB has a scheduler, which serves to manageresources, different from that of the MeNB, and thus the MeNB may selecta primary secondary cell (PS cell) of the SeNB that performs randomaccess, such as the Pcell of the MeNB. The PScell is used fortransmitting control information that requires robustness againstchannel change, and the terminal 630 may determine the CRV of each cellby applying a higher weighted value to the PD for each cell than theweighted value applied to the optimal received signal value as ameasurement result for the measurement report. For example, the MeNB1510 may set the BS 1520 as the SeNB.

Other cells (S cells) of the SeNB have the purpose of increasing theamount of output data, and the MeNB may be required to select a cellhaving a relatively high data transmission rate and a relatively highamount of data output when selecting or adding the cell. As ameasurement result for the measurement report, the terminal 630 maydetermine the CRV of each cell by applying a greater weighted value tothe optimal received signal value than the weighted value applied to thePD value for each cell. The terminal 630 may select the Scell based on avalue different from the weighting factor used when the Pcell or thePScell is selected. For example, the MeNB 1510 may select the cell 1521as the Scell of the SeNB. A group of serving cells (the PScell and thecell 1521) provided by the SeNB may be referred to as a SCG. The SCG mayinclude one PScell and at least one Scell.

The detailed operation for selecting the Scell of the SeNB is asfollows. The MeNB of the terminal 630 corresponds to the BS 1510, andthe SeNB of the terminal 630 corresponds to the BS 1520. Although notillustrated in FIG. 15, the terminal 630 may measure neighboring cellsin order to select the Scell of the SeNB. The terminal 630 may reportthe measurement result to the BS 1510.

In operation 1581, the BS 1510 may determine whether to add, delete, orchange the Scell of the SeNB based on the measurement report receivedfrom the terminal 630. Hereinafter, the operation of adding the Scellwill be described. When adding the Scell of the SeNB, the BS 1510 maytransmit an indication message for indicating the addition to the BS1520 corresponding to the SeNB. The indication message may containcurrent configuration information of the terminal 630, evolved packetsystem (EPS) bearer information, and information requested to the BS1520.

In operation 1582, the BS 1520 may transmit a request message for addingthe Scell to the BS 1510. The request message may contain informationrelated to the cell to be added to the terminal 630 and informationrelated to a bearer (hereinafter, referred to as offload bearer) for theterminal 630.

When the BS 1510 receives the request message, the Scell of the BS 1520may be added to the terminal 630 in operation 1583. In order to set theoffload bearer, the BS 1510 may transmit an RRC connectionreconfiguration message to the terminal 630. The RRC connectionreconfiguration message may contain information on the Scell of the BS1520. Further, the RRC connection reconfiguration message may alsocontain information on the offload bearer between the terminal 630 andthe BS 1520.

When the addition of the Scell of the BS 1520 is completed, the terminal630 may transmit an RRC connection reconfiguration completion message tothe BS 1510 in operation 1584.

When the BS 1510 receives the RRC connection reconfiguration completionmessage, the BS 1520 may transmit an acknowledgement message indicatingthe completion of the addition of the SCG to the BS 1510 in operation1585.

In operation 1586, the terminal 630 may perform a random-accessprocedure with the PS cell of the BS 1520. The terminal 630 maysynchronize the newly added Scell of the BS 1520 through therandom-access procedure and set a transmission output. The terminal 630may transmit and receive data to and from the BS 1520 through the Scell.Operation 1586 may be independently performed from the operations (e.g.,operation 1584 and operation 1585) indicating the completion of the RRCconnection reconfiguration. Accordingly, operation 1586 may be performedbefore operation 1585.

For example, when the terminal 630 selects the cell (Pcell) forconfiguring the MeNB or when the MeNB selects the cell for configuringthe PScell of the SeNB, the terminal 630 may operate in thepath-diversity-based cell selection mode. In contrast, when the MeNBselects the cell for configuring the Scell of the MeNB or the SeNB, theterminal 630 may operate in the optimal-received-signal-based cellselection mode.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the operation for selecting a cellgroup and a cell of a terminal that supports DC according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure. The terminal may be the terminal630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 16, the operation of the terminal 630 as shown in FIG.16 will be described based on the assumption of the wirelesscommunication environment 1500 of FIG. 15.

Referring to FIG. 16, in operation 1610, the terminal 630 may set theoperation mode as a PD based cell selection mode before initial access.That is, by setting the weighted factor to be small, the terminal 630may set the weighted value to be applied to the PD value to be greaterthan the weighted value to be applied to the optimal received signalvalue.

In operation 1620, the terminal 630 may perform beam sweeping. Theterminal 630 may receive reference signals from neighboring cellsthrough the beam-sweeping operation. The reference signals may bebeamformed reference signals. The terminal 630 may calculate the optimalreceived signal value for each cell from the received reference signals.

In operation 1630, the terminal 630 may select a Pcell. The terminal 630may identify the greatest CRV among the CRV s acquired as a result ofthe beam sweeping in operation 1620. The terminal 630 may select thecell corresponding to the greatest CRV as the Pcell. Currently, theoperation mode of the terminal 630 is the path-diversity-based cellselection mode, and thus the selected Pcell may be a cell selected inintensive consideration of the PD value.

In operation 1640, the terminal 630 may select the BS supporting thePcell as the MeNB. The terminal 630 may identify a set of serving cellsprovided by the MeNB as an MCG.

In operation 1650, the terminal 630 may identify whether DC issupported. When DC is not supported, the terminal 630 may end the cellselection operation for selecting the SeNB. The Pcell is a single cell,and the BS of the Pcell may be provided to the terminal 630 as theserving BS. The terminal 630 may perform operation 1660 when DC issupported. The terminal 630 may perform operation 1660 to select thecell of the SeNB.

In operation 1660, the terminal 630 may select the PScell. Currently,the operation mode of the terminal 630 is the path-diversity-based cellselection mode, and thus the selected PScell may be a cell selected inintensive consideration of the PD value.

In operation 1670, the terminal 630 may set the operation mode as theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. When the previousoperation mode of the terminal 630 is the path-diversity-based cellselection mode, the terminal 630 may change the weighting factor. Inorder to select the Scell, by setting the weighting factor to berelatively great, the terminal 630 may assign a greater weighted valueto be applied to the optimal received signal value than the weightedvalue to be applied to the PD value. This is because the purpose of theScell is to improve data throughput and increase a data rate.

In operation 1680, the terminal 630 may determine a CRV for selectingthe S cell. The terminal 630 may measure each of the neighboring cellsto select the Scell. The terminal 630 may determine the CRV for each ofthe neighboring cells based on the measurement. Unlike the value usedwhen the PScell is selected, a newly applied weighting factor may be avalue that applies a greater weighted value to the optimal receivedsignal value than a weighted value applied to the PD for each cell. Theterminal 630 may determine the CRV for selecting the Scell based on thevalues calculated when selecting the Pcell, the PScell, or another cell.For example, the terminal 630 may newly calculate the CRV for eachneighboring cell based on the optimal received signal value and the PDvalue of each neighboring cell acquired when the Pcell is selected, andthe newly set weighted factor. The terminal 630 may report thecalculated CRVs to the MeNB.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 16, the MeNB may select the Scell toprovide service to the terminal 630 based on the reported CRVs. The MeNBmay select the cell corresponding to the greatest CRV as the Scell. Whenan already supported Scell exists, the MeNB may add the selected Scell.

Although FIG. 16 shows that operations 1610 to 1680 are sequentiallyperformed, some operations may be omitted, or the next operation may beperformed after a considerable amount of time has passed.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of selecting a RAT that supports a MCGaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 17, a wireless communication environment 1700 and awireless communication environment 1750 may include a BS 1710, a BS1720, and a terminal 630. The BS 1710 may provide service to a cell1711. The BS 1720 may provide service to a cell 1721. The terminal 630may be a terminal supporting DC. The BS 1710 and the BS 1720 may be BSsthat provide different RATs. For example, the BS 1710 may be a BS thatsupports a beamforming-based RAT. The BS 1710 may be referred to as a 5GBS. The BS 1720 may be a BS that supports an omnidirectional RAT. The BS1720 may be referred to as a 4th generation (4G) BS.

DC may be required to set BSs such that an MeNB and an SeNB aredistinguished from each other. The RAT supported by the MeNB and the RATsupported by the SeNB may be different RATs. Hereinafter, forconvenience of description, the beamforming-based RAT is referred to asa first RAT. The first RAT may indicate RAT associated with5^(th)-generation mobile communication. The omnidirectional RAT isreferred to as a second RAT. The second RAT may indicate RAT associatedwith 4th-generation mobile communication. The first RAT and the secondRAT have different RF) structures or standards. Further, the first RATis the beamforming-based RAT, and may transmit a signal according to adirectivity characteristic so as to realize high throughput and a lowdelay speed. However, due to the directivity characteristic, a signalstrength and a signal quality value are sensitively changed according toa channel state change, such as detection of an obstacle or movement ofthe terminal. Accordingly, the first RAT provides relatively lowrobustness. In contrast, the second RAT is an omnidirectional RAT, andmay transmit a signal in all directions so as to provide relatively lowthroughput and a high delay speed. However, due to the omnidirectionalcharacteristic, for a channel state change such as detection of anobstacle or movement of the terminal, the received signal strength andthe signal quality value are changed within a narrow width. The secondRAT provides relatively high robustness.

The MCG corresponding to a serving cell group of the MeNB may takecharge of RRC signaling and control signaling, such as a random-accessprocedure, and thus may be required to be robust against the channelchange. Accordingly, the terminal 630 may set the BS supporting thesecond RAT as the MeNB. However, when the BS supporting the second RATis set as the MeNB all the time, even though the serving cell of the BSsupporting the first RAT has a higher PD value than the serving cell ofthe BS supporting the second RAT, the terminal 630 may perform controlsignaling through the second RAT, thereby resulting in inefficiency.This is because the first RAT is more robust against channel change thanthe second RAT. Accordingly, when the cell is measured to determine theMeNB or the MCG, it may be necessary to consider the PD values for cellsof the first RAT.

The terminal 630 may acquire the PD value for each of the cellssupporting the first RAT, that is, the 5G cells. The terminal 630 mayidentify the greatest PD value among the acquired PD values. When themaximum PD value is greater than a threshold value, the terminal 630 mayset the BS supporting the corresponding 5G cell as the MeNB. Forexample, the terminal 630 may be a terminal included in the wirelesscommunication environment 1700. The terminal 630 may determine a cellcorresponding to the maximum PD value for the 5G cells as a cell 1711.The terminal 630 may determine that the PD value of the cell 1711including three available paths is greater than a threshold value. Theterminal 630 may set the BS 1710 as the MeNB.

When the maximum PD value is not greater than the threshold value, theterminal 630 may set the BS supporting the 4G cell as the MeNB. Theterminal 630 may measure optimal RSRP values for the 4G cells and set aBS supporting a cell corresponding to the greatest RSRP value as theMeNB. For example, the terminal 630 may be a terminal included in thewireless communication environment 1750. The terminal 630 may determinethat a cell corresponding to the maximum PD value for the 5G cells is acell 1711. The terminal 630 may determine that the PD value of the cell1711 including one available path is not greater than the thresholdvalue. The terminal 630 may determine that a cell corresponding to thegreatest RSRP value among the optimal RSRP values of the 4G cells is thecell 1721. The terminal 630 may set the BS 1710 as the MeNB.

The terminal 630 may acquire, even in control signaling, an effect ofacquiring a high output amount and a low delay service, which areadvantages of the beamforming-based RAT, by selecting the MeNB inconsideration of the PD value for each cell supporting thebeamforming-based RAT.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal forselecting an RAT supporting an MCG according to various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. The terminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 18, the operation of the terminal 630 will bedescribed based on the assumption of the wireless communicationenvironment 1700 or the wireless communication environment 1750 of FIG.17.

Referring to FIG. 18, in operation 1810, the terminal 630 may measure aPD value for each 5G cell. The terminal 630 may identify available pathsgreater than or equal to a threshold value among a plurality of pathsfor one 5G cell. The terminal 630 may determine the PD value for the 5Gcell based on BD values for the identified available paths. For example,the terminal 630 may determine the PD value according to Equation 6above. In this way, the terminal 630 may acquire the PD values forneighboring 5G cells.

In operation 1820, the terminal 630 may determine a maximum PD value.The terminal 630 may identify the greatest value among the PD values forthe 5G cells acquired in operation 1810. The terminal 630 may determinethe identified value as the maximum PD value.

In operation 1830, the terminal 630 may determine whether the identifiedmaximum PD value is greater than a threshold value. The threshold valuemay be a value that guarantees robustness at a predetermined level orhigher against a channel state change according to movement of theterminal or the existence of an obstacle. The threshold value may be apredetermined constant. The constant may be set to be as high aspossible since robustness at a predetermined level or higher should beguaranteed even in the situation in which a channel state change islargest. The constant may be stored in the terminal 630 in advance in amanufacturing and design process. The threshold value may also be avariable that can be adaptively controlled. The threshold value may be avalue determined according to interference around the terminal 630 orthe strength of noise.

When the identified maximum PD value is greater than the thresholdvalue, the terminal 630 may perform operation 1840. When the identifiedmaximum PD value is not greater than the threshold value, the terminal630 may perform operation 1860.

In operation 1840, the terminal 630 may set the BS supporting the 5Gcell corresponding to the identified maximum PD value as an MeNB. The 5Gcell and at least one cell that can be provided to the terminal 630 bythe MeNB are included in an MCG.

In operation 1850, the terminal 630 may determine a CRV for each servingcell included in the MCG. The terminal 630 may determine the CRV basedon not only on the PD value acquired in operation 1810 but also on anoptimal received signal value and a weighting factor. The terminal 630may select the greatest CRV (hereinafter referred to as a maximumrepresentative value) among the CRVs for serving cells included in theMCG. The terminal 630 may set the cell corresponding to the maximumrepresentative value as a Pcell.

In operation 1860, the terminal 630 may set a BS supporting a 4G cell asthe MeNB. The terminal 630 may measure RSRP values for 4G cells near theterminal 630. The terminal 630 may identify the cell having the greatestRSRP value among the RSRP values. The terminal 630 may set the BSsupporting the identified cell as the MeNB.

In operation 1870, the terminal 630 may determine a CRV for selectingthe Scell. In the situation in which the 5G BS is set as an SeNB, theterminal 630 may determine a CRV for each 5G cell such that the 5G cellhaving the greatest received signal value is selected as the Scell forhigh data output and a fast data rate. The terminal 630 may set theweighting factor to be greater than a reference value (e.g., 0.5) andoperate in an optimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. Theterminal 630 may set the weighting factor to apply a greater weightedvalue to the optimal received signal value than a weighted value appliedto the PD value.

Although FIGS. 17 and 18 are described based only on 4G and 5G, they areonly examples for convenience of description, and the present disclosureis not limited thereto. An RAT supporting code division multiple access(CDMA) or an RAT supporting wideband CDMA (WCDMA), which is acommunication scheme predating 4G, may be used.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of cell selection based on an applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 19, the application may be an application that can beexecuted by the terminal 630 of FIG. 6. For example, the application maybe an application that is being executed or is due to be executed by theterminal 630. The application may be an application that provides acommunication service to another electronic device (e.g., a server or aterminal) over a network. The terminal 630 may be required to access thecell in order to execute the application.

Referring to FIG. 19, the wireless communication environment 1900 mayinclude a BS 1910, a BS 1920, and the terminal 630. The BS 1910 mayprovide service to a cell 1911. The BS 1920 may provide service to acell 1921. The cell 1911 may provide a path 1955, a path 1956, and apath 1957 to the terminal 630. The cell 1921 may provide a path 1951 tothe terminal 630. Hereinafter, it is assumed that optimal receivedsignal values are larger in the order of the signal received through thepath 1951, the signal received through the path 1955, the signalreceived through the path 1966, and the signal received through the path1957.

The terminal 630 may classify applications into two sets. The terminal630 may classify an application required to provide real-time service asa first set 1960 and an application that is not required to providereal-time service as a second set 1970. For example, the terminal 630may insert an application that provides a call connection into the firstset. The terminal 630 may insert an application that provides astreaming service such as a video into the first set 1960. The first set1960 may include an application that provides a video call service, amobile game application based on the participation of users, or anapplication using a universal datagram protocol (UDP).

In another example, the terminal 630 may insert an application thatprovides a service (e.g., file transfer protocol (FTP) or peer-to-peer(P2P) file sharing) for downloading data from another electronic deviceinto the second set 1970. The second set 1970 may further include asocial network service (SNS) application, an application that provides achatting service (e.g., a messenger service) with another user, anapplication that provides a cloud service, or an application using atransmission control protocol (TCP).

The application required to provide the real-time service is required tominimize a problem such as transmission blocking like RLF or atransmission delay. Accordingly, in order to select a cell servicing theapplications included in the first set 1960, PD may be intensivelyconsidered. In the determination of a CRV of each cell, the terminal 630may determine the CRV by applying a greater weighted value to the PD foreach cell than the weighted value applied to the optimal received signalvalue. The operation mode of the terminal 630 may be apath-diversity-based cell selection mode.

In contrast, the application that is not required to provide thereal-time service may be required to transmit a relatively large amountof data and have a fast data transmission speed. Accordingly, in orderto select a cell servicing the applications included in the second set1970, the optimal received signal strength value may be considered. Indetermination of the CRV of each cell, the terminal 630 may determinethe CRV by applying a greater weighted value to the optimal receivedsignal value than the weighted value applied to the PD value for thecell. The operation mode of the terminal 630 may be anoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode.

The terminal 630 may acquire information on an application that is beingexecuted or due to be executed. The terminal 630 may identify a setincluding the application. For example, the terminal 630 may identifythe first set 1960 including the application. The terminal 630 maydetermine a weighting factor according to the identified set. Forexample, when the second set 1970 is identified, the terminal 630 maydetermine the weighting factor to be 0.9, which is greater than 0.5. Theterminal 630 may determine CRVs for neighboring cells according to thedetermined weighting factor.

A cell may be selected based on the determined CRVs. The subject thatselects the cell may vary depending on the state of the terminal 630.Depending on the state of the terminal 630, the cell may be selected bythe terminal 630 or selected by the serving BS 680 of the terminal 630.

In some embodiments, when there is no RRC connection, the terminal 630may select a cell for initial access. The terminal 630 may select a cellcorresponding to the greatest CRV among the CRVs for respective cells.For example, when a weighting factor in the path-diversity-based cellselection mode is set for the service of the application included in thefirst set 1960, the terminal 630 may select a cell 1911 having arelatively great PD value. In another example, when a weighting factorin the optimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode is set for theservice of the application included in the second set 1970, the terminal630 may select a cell 1921 having a relatively great optimal receivedsignal value.

In other embodiments, when there is an RRC connection with the terminal630, the serving BS 680 may select a cell to provide the service to theterminal 630. The terminal 630 may be in the state in which one or moreserving cells are set therein. The serving BS 680 may determine anapplication that is being executed by the terminal 630. The serving BS680 may acquire application information of the determined application.The application information may contain the type of application,requirements, or quality of service (QOS) information. The QOSinformation may include a quality class indicator (QCI), an allocationand retention priority (ARP), a guaranteed bearer rate (GBR), and amaximum bit rate (MBR). The terminal 630 may acquire information on anEPS bearer to transmit traffic of the determined application.

The serving BS 680 may select a cell to provide the service of theapplication based on the acquired application information or theinformation on the EPS bearer. For example, when the QCI of theapplication is 1, the serving BS 680 may identify that the applicationis an application for the purpose of voice traffic. The serving BS 680may select the cell by assigning a greater weighted value to the PDvalue compared to the optimal received signal value.

The serving BS 680 may select a desired cell according to variousschemes. For example, when the serving BS 680 acquires the PD value foreach serving cell, the serving BS 680 may select a cell having a largePD value among the serving cells for a voice service. In anotherexample, when the serving BS 680 desires to add a serving cell, theserving BS 680 may provide a weighting factor corresponding to thepath-diversity-based cell selection mode to the terminal 630 for thevoice service. The weighting factor may be determined based on at leastone of the QCI, the ARP, the GBR, and the MBR included in theapplication information. In the corresponding example, the QCI may be 1,indicating a voice chat service. The terminal 630 may calculate CRVs forneighboring cells according to the weighting factor. The terminal 630may report the CRVs to the serving BS 680. The serving BS 680 may selectthe cell 1911. The serving BS 680 may provide the voice service to theterminal 630 through the selected cell 1911.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal for cellselection based on an application according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The terminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 20, the operation of the terminal 630 will bedescribed based on the assumption of the wireless communicationenvironment 1900 of FIG. 19.

Referring to FIG. 20, in operation 2010, the terminal 630 may acquireapplication information. The application information may be informationon an application that is being executed or due to be executed in theterminal 630. The application information may include parametersindicating requirements and the types of services provided by theapplication. For example, the application information may includeinformation on application QOS.

In operation 2020, the terminal 630 may determine whether theapplication requires seamless service based on the acquired applicationinformation. When the application requires seamless service, theterminal 630 may perform operation 2030. For example, the terminal 630may determine that the application is included in the first set 1960.When the application does not require the seamless service, the terminal630 may perform operation 2040. For example, the terminal 630 maydetermine that the application is included in the second set 1970.

In operation 2030, the terminal 630 may determine a weighting factor ofthe path-diversity-based cell selection mode. In the calculation of theCRV, the terminal 630 may set the weighting factor such that a greaterweighted value is applied to the PD value than the weighted value to beapplied to the optimal received signal value. For example, the weightingfactor may be smaller than 0.5.

In operation 2040, the terminal 630 may determine the weighting factorof the optimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. In thecalculation of the CRV, the terminal 630 may set the weighting factorsuch that a greater weighted value is applied to the optimal receivedsignal value than the weighted value to be applied to the PD value. Forexample, the weighting factor may be greater than 0.5.

In operation 2050, the terminal 630 may determine the CRVs. The terminal630 may determine the CRVs of neighboring cells according to thedetermined weighting factor. For example, the terminal 630 may calculatethe CRVs based on Equation 6 above. Although not illustrated in FIG. 20,the terminal 630 may perform an access procedure by reporting each ofthe determined CRVs to the serving BS 680 or selecting a cell having thegreatest value among the determined CRVs.

Although the above description has been made based on two sets includingthe first set 1960, which is the set of applications corresponding tothe path-diversity-based cell selection mode, and the second set 1970,which is the set of applications corresponding to theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode, in FIGS. 19 and 20,the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The number of applicationsets may be three or more. The terminal 630 may identify a setcorresponding to an application being executed among the three or moresets and set a weighting factor corresponding to the identified set soas to measure the cell. The terminal 630 may store a table including thethree or more sets and weighting factors corresponding to the respectivesets.

The serving BS 680 may also identify the set corresponding to theapplication being executed among the three or more sets and determine aweighting factor corresponding to the identified set. The BS 680 maystore a table including the three or more sets and weighting factorscorresponding to the respective sets. The serving BS 680 may select thecell according to the determined weighting factors. For example, theserving BS 680 may recalculate CRVs of reported serving cells accordingto previous weighting factors. In another example, the serving BS 680may transmit measurement configuration information to the terminal 630to perform measurement for cell addition through the determinedweighting factor.

FIG. 21 illustrates an example of cell selection based on movement of aterminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Theterminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 21, a wireless communication environment 2100 and awireless communication environment 2150 may include a BS 2110, a BS2120, and a terminal 630. The BS 2110 may provide service to a cell2111. The BS 2120 may provide service to a cell 2121. The cell 2111 mayprovide a path 2155, a path 2156, and a path 2157 to the terminal 630.The cell 2121 may provide a path 2151 to the terminal 630. Hereinafter,it is assumed that optimal received signal values are larger in theorder of the signal received through the path 2151, the signal receivedthrough the path 2155, the signal received through the path 2156, andthe signal received through the path 2157. In the wireless communicationenvironment 2100, a user 2130 of the terminal 630 is passing through anoverlapping area between the cell 2111 and the cell 2121 on foot. In thewireless communication environment 2150, the terminal 630 is passingthrough the overlapping area between the cell 2111 and the cell 2121 bycar 2180.

As the terminal 630 moves, the state of a channel between the cell 2111or the cell 2121 and the terminal 630 may change. The degree of thechange in the channel state may be inversely proportional to therobustness of the cell providing the channel. The degree of the changein the channel state may vary depending on the movement level of theterminal 630. Accordingly, the terminal 630 may determine the movementlevel of the terminal 630 and acquire information on the degree ofrequired robustness of the cell.

In some embodiments, the terminal 630 may determine the movement levelof the terminal 630 by calculating a Doppler shift value. The terminal630 may determine the movement level of the terminal 630 based on howmuch an apparent frequency changes according to a Doppler effect due tothe movement of the terminal 630. In other embodiments, the terminal 630may determine the movement level of the terminal 630 by measuring thefrequency of handover or cell reselection per unit time. The terminal630 may determine the movement level of the terminal 630 by calculatingthe number of handovers or cell reselections during a predeterminedinterval and dividing the calculated number of handovers or cellreselections by a time value corresponding to the predeterminedinterval. In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may include a separatedevice to measure the speed of movement of the terminal 630. Theseparate device may include a global positioning system (GPS) module, anacceleration sensor, or a gyro sensor. The terminal 630 may determine amovement level indicating a range corresponding to the measured speed.In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may determine a movement levelfor predicted movement of the terminal 630 based on a user's movementhistory information.

The terminal 630 may determine whether the determined movement levelexceeds a threshold value. The threshold value may indicate a movementlevel at which a weighted value of a robustness degree for a requiredcell and a weighted value of a data rate for a desired cell equal eachother. The terminal 630 may set the weighted value of the robustnessdegree for the cell and the weighted value of the data rate for the celldifferently according to the movement level.

The terminal 630 may determine a weighting factor according to whetherthe movement level of the terminal 630 exceeds the threshold value. Forexample, when the terminal 630 moves along with the user 2130, theterminal 630 may determine that the movement level does not exceed thethreshold value. Since the movement level does not exceed the thresholdvalue, the terminal 630 may determine that robustness for the change inthe channel state is at a predetermined level or higher. In order toincrease the data rate, the terminal 630 may operate in theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. The terminal 630 maydetermine a weighting factor corresponding to theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. In another example,when the terminal 630 moves by car 2180, the terminal 630 may determinethat the movement level exceeds the threshold value. Since the movementlevel is relatively high, the terminal 630 may operate in thepath-diversity-based cell selection mode to select a cell that is robustagainst changes in the channel state. The terminal 630 may determine aweighting factor corresponding to the path-diversity-based cellselection mode.

The terminal 630 may calculate CRVs based on the determined weightingfactors. For example, when the terminal 630 moves along with the user2130, the terminal 630 may calculate CRVs with more focus on datathroughput and a data rate of the cell than on robustness for the cell.The cell 2121 including a path (e.g., a path 2151) having thehighest-priority optimal received signal value may be selected. Inanother example, when the terminal 630 moves along with the car 2180,the terminal 630 may calculate CRVs with more focus on the robustnessfor the cell than on the data output for the cell. The cell 2111including a plurality of available paths (e.g., paths 2155, 2156, and2157) having high non-correlation therebetween may be selected.

A cell may be selected based on the determined CRVs. The subject thatselects the cell may vary depending on the state of the terminal 630.Depending on the state of the terminal 630, the cell may be selected bythe terminal 630, or may be selected by the serving BS 680 of theterminal 630.

In some embodiments, when there is no RRC connection, the terminal 630may select a cell for initial access. The terminal 630 may select a cellcorresponding to the greatest CRV among the CRVs for respective cells.For example, when the weighting factor of the path-diversity-based cellselection mode according to the movement level of the terminal 630moving along with the user 2130 is set, the terminal 630 may select acell 2111 having a relatively great PD value. In another example, whenthe weighting factor of the optimal-received-signal-based cell selectionmode according to the movement level of the terminal 630 moving alongwith the car 2180 is set, the terminal 630 may select the cell 2121having a relatively great optimal received signal value.

In other embodiments, when there is an RRC connection with the terminal630, the serving BS 680 may select a cell to provide the service to theterminal 630. The terminal 630 may be in the state in which one or moreserving cells are set therein. The serving BS 680 may identify themovement level of the terminal 630. The serving BS 680 may identify themovement level of the terminal 630 based on a change in measurementreport values for neighboring cells periodically received from theterminal 630, a quality measurement value of a reference signal betweenthe serving BS 680 and the terminal, or a change in information oninterference occurring near a cell boundary. Alternatively, the servingBS 680 may receive the movement level of the terminal 630 from theterminal 630.

The serving BS 680 may select the cell based on the identified movementlevel of the terminal 630. For example, when measurement report valuesfor neighboring cells of the terminal 630 scarcely change, the servingBS 680 may select the cell by assigning a greater weighted value to theoptimal received signal value than the PD value.

The serving BS 680 may select a desired cell according to variousschemes. For example, when the serving BS 680 acquires PD values for theserving cells, the serving BS 680 may select the cell 2111 having alarge PD value among the serving cells for the terminal 630 moving bycar 2180. In another example, when the serving cell is added, theserving BS 680 may provide the weighting factor corresponding to thepath-diversity-based cell selection mode to the terminal 630 for theterminal 630. The terminal 630 may calculate CRVs for neighboring cellsaccording to the weighting factor. The terminal 630 may report the CRVsto the serving BS 680. The serving BS 680 may select the cell 2111. Theserving BS 680 may provide the service to the terminal 630 moving alongwith the car 2180 through the selected cell 2111.

In the above description, the terminal 630 moves to another area, as anexample. However, it goes without saying that the present disclosure isapplicable to a movement in which the direction changes (e.g. theterminal is tilted or rotated). For example, when the rotation speed ofthe terminal 630 exceeds a threshold, the terminal 630 may determine aweighting factor corresponding to the path-diversity-based cellselection mode.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a terminal for cellselection based on movement of the terminal according to an embodimentof the present disclosure. The terminal may be the terminal 630 of FIG.6.

Referring to FIG. 22, the operation of the terminal 630 will bedescribed based on the assumption of the wireless communicationenvironment 1900 or the wireless communication environment 1950 of FIG.20.

Referring to FIG. 22, in operation 2210, the terminal 630 may measurethe movement level of the terminal 630. The terminal 630 may measure themovement level of the terminal 630 based on at least one of the numberof handovers, the number of cell additions/releases, a Doppler shiftvalue, and a change in a periodic measurement report value.

In operation 2220, the terminal 630 may determine whether the measuredmovement level exceeds a threshold value. The terminal 630 may performoperation 2230 when the movement level exceeds the threshold value. Theterminal 630 may perform operation 2240 when the movement level does notexceed the threshold value.

In operation 2230, the terminal 630 may determine a weighting factor ofthe path-diversity-based cell selection mode. When the terminal 630moves relatively fast (e.g., moves along with the car 2180), a channelchange becomes serious, and thus the provision of a robust link may berequired. In the calculation of the CRV, the terminal 630 may set theweighting factor such that a greater weighted value is applied to the PDvalue than the weighted value to be applied to the optimal receivedsignal value. For example, the weighting factor may be smaller than 0.5.

In operation 2240, the terminal 630 may determine the weighting factorof the optimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode.

When the terminal 630 moves relatively slowly (e.g., moves along withthe user 2130), the channel change is relatively small and thusrobustness at a predetermined level or higher is guaranteed.Accordingly, in the calculation of the CRV, for a desired data rate, theterminal 630 may set a weighting factor such that a greater weightedvalue is applied to the optimal received signal value than the weightedvalue to be applied to the PD value. For example, the weighting factormay be greater than 0.5.

In operation 2250, the terminal 630 may determine the CRVs. The terminal630 may determine the CRVs of neighboring cells according to thedetermined weighting factor. For example, the terminal 630 may calculatethe CRVs based on Equation 6 above. Although not illustrated in FIG. 20,the terminal 630 may perform an access procedure by reporting thedetermined CRVs to the serving BS 680 or selecting the cell having thegreatest values among the determined CRVs.

Although FIGS. 21 and 22 have described only two cells selection modesaccording to the threshold value, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto. Three or more divided operation modes may be considered.

When there is no RRC connection, the terminal 630 may calculate CRVsbased on the weighting factor corresponding to the movement levelwithout determining whether the movement level exceeds the thresholdvalue. A movement level table may be used. The movement level table mayinclude three or more movement levels and weighting factorscorresponding to a plurality of movement levels. After detecting themovement speed of the terminal 630, the terminal 630 may identify acorresponding movement level and determine a corresponding weightingfactor so as to determine CRVs of neighboring cells.

An embedded function may also be used. The terminal 630 may calculatethe weighting factor through the function embedded in the detectedmovement speed. The terminal 630 may determine CRVs of neighboring cellsbased on the calculated weighting factor. The terminal 630 may performan access procedure on a cell having the greatest value among the CRVs.

When there is an RRC connection in the terminal 630, the serving BS 680may detect the movement speed of the terminal 630 and determine themovement level in the same way as the determination by the terminal 630.The serving BS 680 may select the cell based on the weighting factordetermined according to the movement level. For example, the serving BS680 may recalculate CRVs of reported serving cells according to previousweighting factors. In another example, the serving BS 680 may transmitmeasurement configuration information to the terminal 630 to performmeasurement for cell addition through the determined weighting factor.

Various wireless environments may be considered depending on the deviceto which the terminal 630 is connected and the type of terminal 630.

In some embodiments, the terminal 630 may be a device connected to adisplay unit (e.g., monitor or TV) of a vehicle (e.g., bus, train, orairplane) to provide a service. The display unit may be a deviceoperationally connected to a communication module (e.g., abeamforming-based communication module) of the terminal 630. The displayunit may provide images or videos (e.g., advertisements). The cell maybe adaptively selected in accordance with movement of the vehicle. Forexample, when the movement of the vehicle is greater than or equal to athreshold value, the terminal 630 may operate in thepath-diversity-based cell selection mode. This is because the user hasdifficulty in accurately identifying the content of the display unit inthe state in which the terminal 630 moves fast, and thus seamlessservice of a low-quality image (e.g., a two-dimensional (2D) image or a16-bit high-color image) is more important than a high-quality image(e.g., a three-dimensional (3D) image or a 32-bit or 24-bit true-colorimage). In contrast, when the movement of the vehicle is smaller thanthe threshold value, for example, when the vehicle stops, the terminal630 may operate in the optimal-received-signal-based cell selectionmode. This is because the calling user's attention may be important inthe state in which the terminal 630 stops. As the terminal 630 accessesa cell having a fast data rate, the display unit may provide ahigh-quality image.

In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may be a device connected to animage acquisition means (e.g., a camera, a camcorder, or aclosed-circuit TV (CCTV)) to provide a service. The image acquisitionmeans may be a device operationally connected to a communication moduleof the terminal 630. The image acquisition means may acquire images orvideos including a predetermined object. The cell may be adaptivelyselected in accordance with the capability of the image acquisitionmeans. For example, in cell selection, the terminal 630 may adaptivelyapply the weighted value according to QOS requirements (e.g., quarterfull high definition (qHD), high definition (HD), quad HD (QHD), full HD(FHD), or ultra HD (UHD)). The terminal 630 may select a cell having agreater optimal received signal value in the case in which the camerarequires a large amount of data, like UHD, rather than the case in whichthe camera requires a small amount of data, like HD. In another example,the terminal 630 may adaptively control the operation mode according tothe purpose of the image acquisition means. When high security isrequired (e.g., for a CCTV, a black box, or a monitoring camera), theprovision of seamless service is requested and thus the terminal 630 mayoperate in the path-diversity-based cell selection mode. In contrast,when security is relatively less important (e.g., a camera forbroadcasting), the provision of high-quality service may be moreimportant, and thus the terminal 630 may operate in theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode.

In other embodiments, the terminal 630 may be a device connected to thevehicle and the image acquisition means. For example, the terminal 630may be an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV may also be referred toas a drone. The terminal 630 may adaptively select the cell based on themovement of the vehicle and the configuration of the image acquisitionmeans. For example, the operation scenario illustrated in FIG. 23 may beconsidered as an example.

FIG. 23 illustrates an example of the operation of a UAV 2330 accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 23, when the UAV 2330 moves at a high speed to monitora wide area, a BS 2310 supporting a cell having a great PD value may beselected in order to provide seamless service. In such a situation, theUAV 2330 may set the quality of the image acquisition means to be lowwhen the data rate becomes equal to or smaller than a threshold value.The UAV 2330 may acquire a low-quality image of a predetermined objectthrough configuration of a low quality. The UAV 2330 may transmit theacquired image to another user, another terminal, or a server. The UAV2330 may seamlessly provide a service at a predetermined level or higherthrough the configuration of the low quality.

The UAV 2330 may detect a particular object. The UAV 2330 may acquire alow-quality image 2360 of the particular object. The UAV 2330 maydetermine that the particular object is an object required to be checkedbased on the low-quality image 2360. The UAV 2330 may stop to accuratelyidentify the particular object. The UAV 2330 may change the operationmode from the path-diversity-based cell selection mode to theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. In theoptimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode, a cell 2320 capableof increasing the data rate may be selected. Since the UAV 2330 canacquire a high-quality image, the UAV 2330 may set the image acquisitionmeans to be high. Through the configuration of high quality, the UAV2330 may acquire an image 2370 of the particular object. The UAV 2330may transmit the acquired image 2370 to another user, another terminal,or a server. Thereafter, the UAV 2330 may repeatedly perform theoperations after changing the operation mode back to thepath-diversity-based cell selection mode in order to monitor the widearea again.

In addition to the above-described various embodiments, variousscenarios may be considered. The terminal 630 may adaptively change theoperation mode according to a service required in the correspondingoperation. When seamless service provided by the terminal 630 isimportant (e.g., for disaster broadcast, rescue broadcast, or trafficinformation), the terminal 630 may operate in the path-diversity-basedcell selection mode. A cell having a high PD value may be selected. Incontrast, when seamlessness of the service of the terminal 630 isrelatively less important or service quality is important (e.g., foradvertising, smart metering, or home automation), the terminal 630 mayoperate in the optimal-received-signal-based cell selection mode. A cellhaving a great optimal received signal value may be selected.

A terminal according to various embodiments of the present disclosurecan perform communication through a targeted cell by calculating CRVs inconsideration of PD as well as optimal received signal values (e.g.,RSRP). The PD value and the optimal received signal value may beadaptively controlled according to various conditions, and a value thatrepresents the cell may be variously defined. An index indicating thecell may be set according to the type of service provided to theterminal, communication technology (e.g., LTE-CA or DC) supported by theterminal, an application (e.g., a voice communication application) usedby the terminal, the mobility level of the terminal, QOS requirements, abandwidth request, and the importance level of data to be transmitted. Adifferent BS, a different beam, or a different frequency may be selectedaccording to the set index. For example, the terminal can preventcapability deterioration such as unnecessary handover or transmissionblocking due to RLF by selecting a cell that is robust against channelchange when there is an obstacle or when the terminal moves.

Methods stated in claims and/or specifications according to variousembodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combinationof hardware and software.

When the methods are implemented by software, a computer-readablestorage medium for storing one or more programs (software modules) maybe provided. The one or more programs stored in the computer-readablestorage medium may be configured for execution by one or more processorswithin the electronic device. The at least one program may includeinstructions that cause the electronic device to perform the methodsaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined bythe appended claims and/or disclosed herein.

The programs (software modules or software) may be stored innon-volatile memories including a random-access memory (RAM) and a flashmemory, a read only memory (ROM), an electrically erasable programmableROM (EEPROM), a magnetic disc storage device, a compact disc-ROM(CD-ROM), digital versatile discs (DVDs), or other type optical storagedevices, or a magnetic cassette. Alternatively, any combination of someor all of the may form a memory in which the program is stored. Further,a plurality of such memories may be included in the electronic device.

In addition, the programs may be stored in an attachable storage devicewhich may access the electronic device through communication networkssuch as the internet, intranet, local area network (LAN), wide LAN(WLAN), and storage area network (SAN) or a combination thereof. Such astorage device may access, via an external port, the electronic devicethat performs various embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, aseparate storage device on the communication network may access aportable electronic device.

In the above-described detailed various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a component included in the present disclosure is expressedin the singular or the plural according to a presented detailedembodiment. However, the singular form or plural form is selected forconvenience of description suitable for the presented situation, andvarious embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to asingle element or multiple elements thereof. Further, either multipleelements expressed in the description may be configured into a singleelement or a single element in the description may be configured intomultiple elements.

While the present disclosure has been shown and described with referenceto various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilledin the art that various changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure asdefined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for operating a terminal in a wirelesscommunication system, the method comprising: communicating through acell determined based on information regarding a strength of a receivedsignal for a first cell and a path diversity (PD) for the first cell,wherein the PD comprises information regarding paths associated with thefirst cell.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the PD is determined basedon at least one of a number of the paths associated with the first cellor a non-correlated degree of the paths.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the paths associated with the first cell comprise at least onepath which provides a channel quality higher than a threshold, among aplurality of paths supportable by the terminal.
 4. The method of claim1, further comprising: identifying first beams corresponding to thepaths associated with the first cell, among a plurality of beams of theterminal; and determining the PD for the first cell based on beamdistances (BDs) for the identified first beams.
 5. The method of claim4, further comprising: identifying a first BD table among a plurality ofBD tables according to whether a path for the first cell is line ofsight (LOS); and determining the BDs for the identified first beamsbased on the identified first BD table.
 6. The method of claim 4,wherein a BD of the BDs is determined based on correlation between i-thbeam of the first beams and j-th beam of the first beams, and whereinthe correlation is determined based on a difference between at least onefirst parameter indicating the i-th beam and at least one secondparameter indicating the j-th beam.
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein aBD of the BDs is based on a difference between a first position for amaximum gain in a main lobe of the i-th beam and a second position for amaximum gain in a main lobe of the j-th beam.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the communicating comprises: determining a measurement resultfor the first cell based on the information regarding the strength ofthe received signal for the first cell and the PD for the first cell;and identifying the cell based on the measurement result, wherein theinformation regarding the strength of the received signal is applied toa first weight for the measurement result, and wherein the PD is appliedto a second weight for the measurement result.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein, when identifying a primary cell (Pcell) for long term evolution(LTE)—carrier aggregation (CA) operations of the terminal, the firstweight is determined to be greater than or equal to the second weight,and wherein when identifying a secondary cell for the LTE-CA operations,the first weight is determined to be smaller than the second weight. 10.The method of claim 8, further comprising: detecting a velocity of theterminal, wherein, when the detected velocity is greater than athreshold, the first weight is determined to be greater than or equal tothe second weight, and wherein, when the detected velocity is smallerthan the threshold, the first weight is determined to be smaller thanthe second weight.
 11. An apparatus of a terminal in a wirelesscommunication system, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor;and at least one transceiver operatively coupled to the at least oneprocessor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to controlthe at least one transceiver to communicate through a cell determinedbased on information regarding a strength of a received signal for afirst cell and a path diversity (PD) for the first cell, and wherein thePD comprises information regarding paths associated with the first cell.12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the PD is determined based on atleast one of a number of the paths associated with the first cell or anuncorrelated degree of the paths.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, whereinthe paths associated with the first cell comprises at least one pathwhich provides a channel quality higher than a threshold, among aplurality of paths supportable by the terminal.
 14. The apparatus ofclaim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:identify first beams corresponding to the paths associated with thefirst cell, among a plurality of beams of the terminal, and determinethe PD for the first cell based on beam distances (BDs) for theidentified first beams.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the atleast one processor is further configured to: identify a first BD tableamong a plurality of beam distance tables according to whether a pathfor the first cell is line of sight (LOS), and determine the BDs for theidentified first beams by using the identified first BD table.
 16. Theapparatus of claim 14, wherein a BD of the BDs is determined based oncorrelation between i-th beam of the first beams and j-th beam of thefirst beams, and wherein the correlation is determined based on adifference between at least one first parameter indicating the i-th beamand at least one second parameter indicating the j-th beam.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 14, wherein a BD of the BDs is based on a differencebetween a first position for a maximum gain in a main lobe of the i-thbeam and a second position for a maximum gain in a main lobe of the j-thbeam.
 18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor,in order to control the at least one transceiver to perform thecommunication, is configured to: determine a measurement result for thefirst cell based on the information regarding the strength of thereceived signal for the first cell and the PD for the first cell, andidentify the cell based on the measurement result, wherein theinformation regarding the strength of the received signal is applied toa first weight for the measurement result, and wherein the PD is appliedto a second weight for the measurement result.
 19. The apparatus ofclaim 18, wherein, when identifying a primary cell (Pcell) for long termevolution (LTE)—carrier aggregation (CA) operations of the terminal, thefirst weight is determined to be greater than or equal to the secondweight, and wherein when identifying the secondary cell for the LTE-CAoperations, the first weight is determined to be smaller than the secondweight.
 20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to: detect a velocity of the terminal,wherein, when the detected velocity is greater than a threshold, thefirst weight is determined to be greater than or equal to the secondweight, and wherein, when the detected velocity is smaller than thethreshold, the first weight is determined to be smaller than the secondweight.
 21. A method for operating a base station in a wirelesscommunication system, the method comprising: determining a celldetermined based on information regarding a strength of a receivedsignal for a first cell and a path diversity (PD) for the first cell;and communicating with the terminal through the determined cell, whereinthe PD comprises information regarding paths associated with the firstcell.
 22. An apparatus of a base station in a wireless communicationsystem, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at leastone transceiver operatively coupled to the at least one processor,wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine a celldetermined based on information regarding a strength of a receivedsignal for a first cell and a path diversity (PD) for the first cell,wherein the at least one transceiver is configured to communicate withthe terminal through the determined cell, and wherein the PD comprisesinformation regarding paths associated with the first cell.
 23. A methodfor operating an electronic device in a wireless communication system,the apparatus comprising: obtaining first information when theelectronic device is connected to a first cell; identifying a secondcell if an object in the first information is detected; obtaining secondinformation for the detected object when the electronic device isconnected to the identified second cell, wherein a weight of a pathdiversity (PD) of the first cell is greater than a weight of a strengthof a received signal for the first cell, wherein a weight of a strengthof a received signal for the second cell is greater than a weight of aPD of the second cell, wherein the PD of the first cell comprisesinformation regarding paths associated with the first cell, and whereinthe PD of the second cell comprises information regarding pathsassociated with the second cell.
 24. An electronic device in a wirelesscommunication system, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor;and at least one transceiver operatively coupled to the at least oneprocessor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: obtainfirst information when the electronic device is connected to a firstcell; identify a second cell if an object in the first information isdetected; obtain second information for the detected object when theelectronic device is connected to the identified second cell, wherein aweight of a path diversity (PD) of the first cell is greater than aweight of a strength of a received signal for the first cell, wherein aweight of a strength of a received signal for the second cell is greaterthan a weight of a PD of the second cell, wherein the PD of the firstcell comprises information regarding paths associated with the firstcell, and wherein the PD of the second cell comprises informationregarding paths associated with the second cell.